Directed and narrated by Richard Attenborough, Puckoon is an adaption of Spike
Milligan's humorous book about an Irish village where the border between the
six Ulster counties and what was then called the Irish Free State. I doubt that
anyone on this side of the pond would know anyone in the cast other than Elliott
Gould who plays the village Jewish doctor like he might have been understudying
Paul Muni from The Last Angry Man. Gould's kind of artificially grafted into the
proceedings and he really doesn't serve any purpose.
The main character is played by Sean Hughes and he's the village lout who
avoids work like it was a bill collector. Somehow some way Hughes gums up
everything he gets involved in, including the boundary commission where the
line in Puckoon takes all kinds of crazy twists and turns.
You probably have to be a bit up on Irish history to appreciate most of this
picture. Still there is enough physical comedy in it and that language is
universal.
Puckoon is amusing enough and recommended, but for a select audience.
