Trouble With Sex

Director Fintan Connolly’s sophomore effort is a rather more contemplative exercise than his previous buzzy urban thriller, Flick. Trouble With Sex is a low-key modern Irish romance in much the same vein as Karl Golden’s The Honeymooners or Liz Gill’s Goldfish Memory – a pleasing will-they-won’t they strut set by the banks of the Liffey.
Leading by default is Michelle (Weldon) – a young go-getter lawyer with a penchant for power stilettos and feather boas. When she meets sullen Conor (Gillen) sparks fly, but in proper generic fashion complications arise. Between her ex-boyfriend Ivan the Terrible and her ailing mother (Fitzgerald), Michelle’s personal life is a Byzantine mess. Conor, meanwhile, is not faring much better as he nurses a long-standing heartache and dutifully runs a quaint old man pub for his alcoholic father (Morrissey).
Interestingly, through the characters’ respective locales, Fintan Connolly creates a kind of visual and cultural dialogue between the loft apartments and the grot formerly known as Dublin; an infinitely preferable approach to the usual tour of the capital’s shiny new things. But if certain cliches are skilfully avoided, there are still a couple of ropey moments. Much of the trouble with Trouble With Sex can be traced to the dialogue which, alas, is patchy in places. The screenplay’s attempts at corporate satire, in particular, are ill-advised.
That said, the film makes for sweet likeable drama and Renee Weldon is remarkable as a spiky, sensual, triple-vodka swilling anti-Bridget Jones. You go girl. Chardonnay and propriety be damned.

Running Time 100mins. Cert 16. Opens May 6th.