User Reviews

It doesn't often happen that a young actor outshines a veteran Hollywood laureate as easily as Charlie Reid does in Joyride. Playing a jolly and good-hearted, albeit almost Mary Stu-ish character, he gives an amazing performance and makes an enjoyable sparring duo with Olivia Colman. The two's relationship and acting are undoubtedly the highlights of the movie, which, while starting promising and strong, teeters off through its sluggish final act into a somewhat forced feel-good all-is-well ending. Despite its flaws, it was overall a decent and enjoyable movie and I do not regret watching it. 6.5 from me.

This movie could have really went somewhere because Charlie Reid was just so interesting. But the movie took a boring and uneventful turn and went downhill from there. Also if you cannot stand crying bby's in a movie, this one will annoy you as it did me. It's like OK I GET IT THE BBY'S UPSET, NOW MOVE ONTO THE STORY! The female lead was forgettable at best, but really this was an emotionally strange movie. The motherly vibe they were going for was spoiled by her emotionless actions towards the baby. She loved one child but not the other and then totally switches? Just all around a strange and not worth the time it took watching it. ALL my stars go to Reid and I will watch whatever he does next because he knows how to act!

I remember seeing a trailer for this film, obviously I was going to remember it because of the leading actress, and from the clips I saw and descriptions I read it looked and sounded like fun as well. Basically, in County Kerry, Ireland, thirteen-year-old Andrew "Mully" Mulligan (Charlie Reid) lost just his mother after she died of cancer. There is a gathering and celebration for her life at the pub with a collection jar for the cancer hospice she was staying in. After Mully has entertained the crowd singing Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher", he confronts his father James (Lochlann O'Mearáin) for stealing the collection money, but he insists his mother would have wanted him to have it, to pay for his debts. Mully grabs the cash and steals a taxi he finds outside the pub; he drives away planning to return the charity money. After driving away, he realises there are passengers in the back seat: headstrong solicitor Joy (Olivia Colman) and her new-born baby girl. Despite the initial shock, she insists they keep driving as she has a plane to catch. As the odd couple travel, they bond, quarrel, and form something of a mother-son dynamic. During a squabble, Mully accidentally hits a fox, and Joy runs it over to put out of its misery. When the car runs out of petrol, they are forced to walk to a petrol station, and he proposes they take it in turns asking and answering questions. Mully explains about the hospice money. Joy tells him that she cannot handle being a mother, she is giving the baby away and then flying to Lanzarote. She has no idea who the father is, she has not bonded with the baby, and is giving the child to her childhood friend Mags (Aisling O'Sullivan). After filling the car, they swap it for another vehicle they find at a used car lot, to avoid the police searching for them. Joy and Mully take the backroads to remain undetected by the law and because he is an unlicenced driver. Calling James from the petrol station, Mully is convinced by his father to head for a ferry, which Joy initially rejects. However, she changes her mind when there is a police checkpoint on the way. Before boarding the ferry, Mully helps Joy learn how to breastfeed the baby, and she decides to name the child Robin, after she happens to see the bird nearby. Mully's dad catches up with them, and Mully convinces him to let Joy and Robin go with them in the car. Joy suffers a haemorrhage, so they go to a B&B so she can get cleaned up and rest. Meanwhile, Mully's father wants his son to lie that he stole the money and was then robbed. Joy calls up Mags, letting her know she had the baby one week early, her name is Robin and that she has breastfed her. She then tells her about a repressed memory from her childhood where she and her mother saw her father cheating. After this, Joy went into the sea and was taken away by the undertow, but her mother hesitated to save her. Joy tells Mags she'll be there soon. The next morning, before leaving, Joy gives the hospice money back to Mully so he can do the right thing. Mully is upset that Joy will leave him and is giving away Robin, so he lashes out and insults her. Highly emotional, Joy drops Robin on Mags's doorstep, then drives on to Kerry airport in deep denial about her feelings for her child. Soon after she boards the plane bound for Spain, Joy has a change of heart and insists to be let off, and with the help of passengers the staff eventually do so. She races back to find Mully at the seaside. He initially scolds her when she finds him, but James appears demanding the money. Joy tries to protect Mully from his father, but he runs to the water and throws the money over his shoulder. While Mully's father retrieves the money, Joey runs into the water and helps Mully. In the end, Mags calls Joy to pick up a distraught Robin. Joy drives by the pub with Mully to return the stolen money and they drive away to collect the baby. Also starring Elaine Kennedy as Rita, Seamus Kennnedy as Young Mully, Tim Landers as Pub Landlord, Olwen Fouéré as Sideline Sue, Seán O'Connor as Taxi Driver, Sean Crowe as Baby Robin, Sam Crowe as Baby Robin, and Sé O'Neill Hasik as Baby Robin. Colman gives a good performance as the bad-tempered woman unprepared to be a new mother, young Reid is equally good as the feisty boy forced to drive her, together they form a great damaged odd couple who constantly bicker but find common ground. It is fair to say it is slow at times and perhaps awkward, most of the humour comes from the sweary interactions between the leads, but the small emotional twists help things move along, the landscapes on the road trip make good viewing, it is absolutely the leads that make it all just about come together, a reasonable coming-of-age comedy. Worth watching!

This film evokes so many raw emotions that I was a bit uncomfortable for a few bits, but sat with it, paused the film and then came back to it. I knew it wouldn't disappoint in the end with Olivia Coleman. It's clear why she is an award winning actress. Her expansive range of emotions is communicated on her face without words. It was satisfying to watch her transformation, albeit through struggles, to the other side of coming to terms with her mother and with her newborn. What a 'joy' to see her character evolve in front of our eyes, to see her come out of the fog she had been living in, and to witness her experience maternal love and the angst that comes with that. The young man who played Mully was well cast and the director paced the character development well for such an intense few days.