Redolent of young-adult fiction by way of school hijinks movies, with a whiff of British realism, this is much less satisfying than all that would suggest. An Irish Angel revolves around pregnant teenager Aine (Niamh James) living in Portrush in Northern Ireland who, as the film starts, has yet to tell her mum Margaret (Amanda Doherty) she’s up the duff, although her grandmother Agnes (Kathy Deehan) already suspects what’s going on.
At least her best friend, sweet-natured goof and aspiring actor Leo (Todd Bell), offers to help her pay for an abortion but Aine dithers over whether she wants to terminate or not. Dreams about the school caretaker (Shane Robinson) taking the form of Jesus are not especially helpful when it comes to working out what to do. Meanwhile, Aine and Leo are in the school production of Pulcinella, directed by drama teacher Ellie (Jaime Winstone). This gives Leo a chance to pitch some woo to Corinna (Ania Lee Lyes), who used to be close friends with Aine until something at first unspecified happened to drive a wedge between them. Naturally, the fateful event has something to do with Aine’s pregnancy.
That would all be more than enough to get on with, but writer-director Danny Patrick piles on more incident, including Leo getting mixed up with his shady brother Padraig’s (Baz Black) plans to rob a local gangster businessman, mildly comic shenanigans at the local church involving an elderly priest, and domestic workers, including Margaret, going on strike. It all pootles along rather dully, ineptly trying for a comic tone before it decides to lurch into tragedy. Unfortunately, the inexperienced and/or poorly directed cast can’t really handle the tonal shift; they react to the death of two important characters as if a favourite TV show had been cancelled. It’s a slog to sit through.
• An Irish Angel is on UK digital platforms from 15 April
