The fact that two Love/Hate stars lead the cast in Get Up and Go guarantees a fair ring at the box office, certainly in this country. Success will, in large part, be deserved, as Peter Coonan and Killian Scott work very well together as two chalk-and-cheese mates in this confident slacker drama.
Scott as Coilín is gutted over the failure of his brief fling with the enigmatic young student/clothes shop assistant Lola (played by the terrific actress, Gemma-Leah Devereux). He can't move on, but move on he must, as he tries to get himself a comedy gig at the International Bar, while trying in vain to get back with Lola.
Thus the wandering thread of the plot - set over a loose day and an even looser night - takes in love and misunderstanding, the fear of responsibility and, yes, the desire to leave and start anew. Peter Coonan's character, the mercurial, flighty Alex, is about to travel to London that day, but he is failing to find the money.
There is a shiftless air about him, an air of someone who is hiding a certain despair with wide boy antics. The fact that he is emigrating at all may seem cowardly, given that his girlfriend Sinéad (Sarah McCall) has just told him that she is pregnant. However, it's not so much that Alex is a young man without a conscience: it's more that he looks after himself, with survivalist charisma and an air of upfront fecklessness. Recall that animal magnetism of Gérard Depardieu in early films, like Bertrand Blier's Les Valseuses (1974), and you have Alex to a tee.
Thus the movie evolves in convincing fashion, with strong dialogue and impressive acting all around. Get Up and Go bears some comparison to Emilio Martínez-Lázaro's 2002 film, El Otro Lado de la Cama (The Other Side of the Bed), which explores the same type of urban playground, albeit in Madrid in that case. Recommended.
Paddy Kehoe
