The Mighty Celt

Set in present-day West Belfast but intelligently sidestepping the troubles apart from the odd comment or two, the Mighty Celt is about a young teenager Donal (played memorably by Tyrone McKenna) who helps a greyhound trainer Good Joe (Stott) train dogs for big races. Good is a misnomer in this case, Joe is anything but good. If a dog fails him in a race, he knocks it over the head and throws it into the river. One day, Donal who has been brought up by his single Mom Kate (Anderson), persuades Joe to let him keep a dog who he calls the Mighty Celt, the deal being if the dog wins 3 races, Donal will get to keep him. Carlyle plays an older man O who is from Kate’s past, who returns, wanting to put his past behind him.

The Mighty Celt is really Kes set in Ireland and substituting greyhounds for kestrels. The film is at its strongest and most natural when young lad Donal is trying to get the best out of his young dog having been set a target by his mean-spirited boss (Stott). Its nicely realized as a film with reasonable performances and convincing dialogue – to a certain extent its slightly predictable but it does still contain surprises and there’s one genuine moment towards the end of the film, when the action really could go one of two ways and you have no idea which way it will go. On the whole a well-made film and certainly a good choice to take pre-teens to see. Nice too to see Robert Carlyle in a calmer role from the more aggressive roles we’ve become used to.

Matt Arnoldi