Orphans
Dir: Peter Mullan
1998
*****
When Orphans came out in 1998 I remember telling people that the then less well known actor Peter Mullan was just as good behind the camera as he was in front of it. Most people only knew him from his small role in Trainspotting but I'd recently seen him in the amazing My Name Is Joe and really enjoyed his performances in Riff-Raff, Shallow Grave and various TV programs. He's gone on to direct a couple more films, both of them brilliant and he's become a house-hold name as both director and actor. It's easy to see how Orphans spring-boarded him somewhat. It is black comedy at it's finest. Four very different siblings deal with the death of their Mother in various different mad-cap ways, the results being touching, emotional and hilarious. The scene whereby Son Thomas (played by the brilliant and underrated Gary Lewis) insists on carrying his Mother's coffin single-handed out of bloody-minded martyrdom is both tragic, sad but irresistibly funny and sets the tone perfectly.