Hair Today
An Everlasting Piece
Review by Ross Anthony

If "The Full Monty" left you with a hankerin' for another quirky Irish comedy - you might try this one.

Colm (a Catholic) and George (a Protestant) are barbers at a mental institution in Belfast. Early on in the film, the owner of the only hairpiece biz in the city is committed to their hospital. Colm and George scheme to grab his wide open market of bald headed Irishmen. Set against turbulent 1980's IRA/British conflict, the pacifist filmmakers spell a play on the title's third word.

The film assumes you understand this centuries-old Northern Ireland feud. Here's the over-simplified version as best I understand it from my travels there in 1992. Imperialistic British took over the country a while back. Local Irish still aren't too happy about that. In fact, some are so displeased that they formed a militant group (IRA) that terrorizes the British police in hopes of casting them from the island. Then why the religious reference? So happens, most of the native Irish are Catholic and most of the transplanted British citizens, Protestant. Hence, religious denomination is commonly used to discern nationalistic sympathy.

Back to the review of the film: Cute, quirky, gritty, and playfully foul-mouthed (this film uses the word "d**k" more than any other film this year), "Everlasting Piece" is as adorable as its lead Barry McEvoy (an Irish Tony Curtis). He wrote "the piece" by the way - McEvoy, not Curtis - inspired by his pops who was a wig salesman - McEvoy's father, not Curtis'. However, the cute odd twists become silly/ridiculous twists in the third act, which fails to capitalize on an interesting climax.



  • An Everlasting Piece. Copyright © 2000. Rated R.
  • Starring Barry McEvoy, Brian F. O'byrne, Anna Friel, Pauline Mclynn, Ruth McCabe, Laurence Kinland, Billy Connolly, Des McAleer, Colum Convey.
  • Directed by Barry Levinson.
  • Written by Barry McEvoy.
  • Produced by Mark Johnson, Louis Digiaimo, Jerome O'Connor, Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein at Columbia/Dreamworks/Bayahibe/baltimore-springcreek.



Grade..........................B+



Copyright © 2000. Ross Anthony, currently based in Los Angeles, has scripted and shot documentaries, music videos, and shorts in 35 countries across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more reviews visit: RossAnthony.com


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Last Modified: Saturday, 16-Sep-2006 08:12:02 PDT