Honeymon Struck

The Honeymooners is an adroit lo-fi Irish romantic comedy from first-time writer and director Karl Golden that contrives to bring together dejected groom David (newcomer Jonathan Byrne from On Home Ground) and rejected waitress Fiona (Last Orders’ Alex Reid). He’s difficult and greatly wounded having being left at the altar by his bride-to-be (ouch – all that wasted confetti), while she’s a feisty girl from the North Country recently spurned by her married boyfriend. Their mutual need to take-off and lie-low brings them together in an isolated Donegal cottage where things soon settle into a pleasing will-they, won’t-they groove.

It’s a raw, unadorned runaway liaison-flick shot on something significantly less than Halle Berry’s hair extension budget for Gothika.
“I wanted to do something different with the rom-com formula,” explains helmsman Karl Golden. “I wanted to do something that you’re not used to seeing, where everything is stripped away. No gloss. No Meg Ryan. So that you’re just left with the emotions between two people. And of course, practically speaking, romantic comedy is a great first genre. I was frustrated with other projects that were in development, and this didn’t need a big budget because it was all about two characters.”
As the project was made on Digital Video in true guerrilla style, the aesthetic may be said to be Dogme-derived. (Come on, don’t get scared now.)
“It is very raw looking,” says Karl, who has previously made the critically acclaimed short films Still Rain, Dogsbody and Bleached. “It’s probably much rawer than audiences would expect, especially for the genre concerned, but we wanted something that felt very stripped away. It’s in keeping with what’ s happening with the characters. I love the rawness of DV. You can try to make it more filmic, but that rawness always comes through and that can be just as cinematic in its own way.”
Despite this off-the-cuff, indie approach, the production was largely unproblematic.
“We just set a date to start shooting and we got lucky along the way,” says the fledgling auteur. “TV3 came aboard and then other people, like the Film Board came in with support, so by the time we actually started there was a small army of people assembled. We made it under the radar as far as that was possible, and that gave us a lot of flexibility and freedom.”
The result is a sweet, unique movie with a genuine sense of spontaneity. The Honeymooners also boasts astutely judged, likable performances from Reid and Byrne.
“I’m very interested in US indie cinema, and I’ve always loved people like Woody Allen, and raw films like those by John Cassavetes,” says Karl of his (evidently) favourable formative influences. “But one director I love and really look to is Lukas Moodyson. I love the way he can take something and totally twist your expectations. Show Me Love is a high-school romance, but it’s completely different to anything you might expect from that genre. I’m mainly interested in character-based cinema, so The Honeymooners is a very character driven piece. I hope that and the warmth of the performances will win people over even if the style of the film seems alien.”
It undoubtedly will.

The Honeymooners is released March 26