Joyride review – Olivia Colman grabs the wheel in odd-couple Irish road movie

This article is more than 3 years old

joyride

Joyride review – Olivia Colman grabs the wheel in odd-couple Irish road movie

This article is more than 3 years old

A woman abandons her baby for a holiday, only to fall in with a 12-year-old thief, in this clumsy comedy with a late redemptio

Some women embrace the wonders and the challenges of new motherhood with open arms and hearts. Others make plans to give away their newborn to someone more in tune with the whole parenting lark and book themselves a flight to Lanzarote to recuperate in a sea of vodka. Joy (Olivia Colman) falls into the latter camp. But her plan hits a snag when her taxi is stolen by 12-year-old Mully (Charlie Reid) and she wakes to find herself halfway across County Kerry.

This odd-couple comedy road movie paints its characters in brushstrokes so broad you could land a jumbo jet on them, while the intrusively affable score lurches into every scene like a drunk with no concept of personal space. And yet Colman saves the picture, her thorny performance gradually revealing a well of pain.

Some women embrace the wonders and the challenges of new motherhood with open arms and hearts. Others make plans to give away their newborn to someone more in tune with the whole parenting lark and book themselves a flight to Lanzarote to recuperate in a sea of vodka. Joy (Olivia Colman) falls into the latter camp. But her plan hits a snag when her taxi is stolen by 12-year-old Mully (Charlie Reid) and she wakes to find herself halfway across County Kerry.

This odd-couple comedy road movie paints its characters in brushstrokes so broad you could land a jumbo jet on them, while the intrusively affable score lurches into every scene like a drunk with no concept of personal space. And yet Colman saves the picture, her thorny performance gradually revealing a well of pain.