A coming-of-age drama, set in Ireland in 1977, the year Elvis died. Louisiana-born Jared Leto plays the eldest and somewhat shy son of an eccentric Irish family, waiting for his exam scores for college admittance while his father (Gabriel Byrne) trots off to America for an acting gig and his mother (Canadian-born Catherine O'Hara) is driving him insane. Plus the two hottest girls in town (one of them Emily Mortimer) are both sniffing around him, and he is the subject of unwanted attention from a visiting American (Christina Ricci). Everything is coming to boil, including a sleazy politician (Colm Meany) sniffing around Leto's perpetually lonely mom. O'Hara is a hoot, and makes what might have been a thoroughly obnoxious character actually quite lovable. A young actor at the time, Leto already showed great promise. I won't vouch for his Irish accent, not being Irish.
Review of The Last of the High Kings
