The Delinquent Season | Film review - Bittersweet marital drama

(Image credit: Element Pictures Distribution)

'Our happiness is fragile.'

Think of films about middle-class couples caught in adulterous tangles and you probably imagine the setting as Paris or Hampstead. Bittersweet Irish drama The Delinquent Season takes place, however, in a well-heeled corner of Dublin, where two dinner-party-throwing couples (played by Cillian Murphy, Eva Birthistle, Catherine Walker and Andrew Scott) come messily unstuck.

Making his film-directing debut, playwright Mark O’Rowe shows that it doesn’t take very much for these marriages to fray and unravel. ‘Our happiness is fragile,’ says Walker’s Yvonne, embarking on a liaison with Murphy’s Jim. ‘We’re all hanging on to it by the skin of our teeth.’ To tell the truth, there’s something a tad stagy about O’Rowe’s handling of his story, but the quality of the performances make it compelling viewing all the same.

Certificate 15. Runtime 100 mins. Director Mark O'Rowe

The Delinquent Season shows on Sky Cinema Premiere from 31 July.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAWOQbOPJIg

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.