TWO SOULS COLLIDE (BALLYWALTER)

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'Ballywalter' isn't about Ballywalter.

The Northern Irish coastal village simply provides a backdrop for director Prasanna Puranawajah and screenwriter Stacey Gregg's delicate tale of damaged souls coming into each other's orbit and helping each other cope.

If anything, Belfast features more than Ballywalter in Puranawajah's movie but we know that title was already taken.

Seana Kerslake plays Eileen, a twentysomething university dropout who has gone off the rails and is back living with her mum, Abigail McGibbon's Jen.

Taking on the job of a taxi driver, she has to endure the opinions of customers who don't think it's a job for a woman.

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Eileen doubles as a barista and can be pretty spiky with the customers in both jobs.

Disillusioned and dejected, she hides behind drink as she struggles to come to terms with the death of her father, the sudden ending of a relationship with a cheating boyfriend and her guilt over her failure to remain at university.

Responding to a call for a cab from Ballywalter, she picks up Paddy Kielty's Shane en route to Belfast with neither of them saying much on their first trip from the Co Down village.

This journey becomes a regular gig, though, with Shane attending a weekly stand-up comedy class.

At first, the interaction between them is frosty but the iciness soon melts, with Eileen inviting Shane after one class to sit beside her in the front passenger's seat.

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Intrigued by why he is doing a course in stand-up comedy, the duo bond over a mutual love of Monty Python's 'The Life of Brian'.

Soon he reveals the reason why he doesn't drive himself to the class.

Shane is open about his personal demons and over the course of Puranawajah's 90 minute film, the duo bare their souls.

As they get to know each other, they laugh, they bicker, they show concern for each other and they encourage each other to clamber out of the wells of despair.

When Shane struggles with nerves and self-doubt in the build-up to a gig with his classmates in the city's Empire Comedy Club, it is Eileen who pushes him to overcome his fear.

As he watches Eileen wallow in self pity and retreat into drink, Shane urges her to change the course of her life by volunteering to help others.

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In Gregg's deftly written screenplay, the intersecting of these lives offers hope in the bleak midwinter.

It's not all plain sailing and at times they let each other down.

And as it documents their relationship, Puranawajah delivers an understated gem of a movie.

As you can tell, 'Ballywalter' is not a riotous comedy - although there are laughs.

The mood is often as grey and sombre as the Northern Irish winter it depicts.

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Nevertheless moments of gentle humour keep trickling through, warming the soul.

The film is a cleverly written, beautifully acted and sensitive low budget drama about mental health and finding redemption.

Confronting issues of trauma and healing in a way that few movies with much bigger budgets manage, the film plays to the strengths of its two leads and it never reaches for glib answers.

Kerslake, who was deservedly IFTA nominated for her performance as Eileen, is simply superb - nailing the cadences of the Northern Irish accent while engaging the audience's sympathy just like she did playing another damaged soul in the 2016 award winner 'A Date With Mad Mary'.

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Not afraid to show Eileen at her most vulnerable, her searingly honest performance demonstrates why she is one of the most exciting actors working in Irish cinema and television today.

Good screening acting, as we have said on this blog before, isn't all about what you say or how you say it.

It's about the eyes and Kerslake uses her facial expressions brilliantly to convey Eileen's pain, anger, recklessness and warmth beneath all the bluster.

Casting directors in the US and UK should sit up and take note - if they haven't already.

Kielty, who is riding the crest of a wave as the new host of RTE's 'The Late Late Show,' impresses in his movie debut.

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Given his associations with the emergence of stand-up comedy in Northern Ireland and the Empire during the tail end of the Troubles, his casting could be really gimmicky.

However Kielty's performance has more subtlety, grit and substance than many will expect.

He's delightfully understated as a man haunted by his past and uncertain about his future.

Guilt, shame and self loathing are worn on his face and when Shane hesitantly takes to the stage, he's a world away from the confident performer we have seen Kielty be on shows like 'PK Tonight,' 'Fame Academy' and 'Live At The Apollo'.

McGibbon is wonderful too as Eileen's tired but concerned mum, while Adele Gribbon burns with anger as Eileen's frustrated pregnant sister Gemma.

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Chris Corrigan, Gemma Hutton, Julian Moore-Cook, Katrina McKeever, Paul Mallon, Conor MacNeill and Lloyd Hutchinson amuse as Shane's classmates and tutor, while the always reliable Ryan McParland pops up as Pizza Phil, an angry delivery man whose motorcycle Eileen damages.

Puranawajah directs Gregg's tale with subtlety, humility and great sensitivity, making movie references without ever being too ostentatious.

Some viewers will detect traces of Martin Scorsese's work in the film's depiction of Belfast with some shots by the cinematographer Federico Cesca echoing 'Taxi Driver' and 'The King of the Comedy'.

Cesca showcases Belfast and Co Down in the depths of winter by bathing them in striking amber and watery green light.

He also makes good use of city centre locations like the Sunflower Bar, the Ulster Sports Club and The Empire.

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Coming on the back of her fabulous psychological thriller 'Here Before,' 'Ballywalter' also confirms Gregg as a wonderful screenwriter.

It's an impressively resourceful piece of writing, squeezing more emotion out in five minutes than Jason Statham or Vin Diesel have managed in their entire careers.

The film makes you wonder what Puranawajah could also achieve as a director with an even bigger budget.

'Ballywalter' is a mature piece of cinema that taps into universal themes of people coming to terms with their own failings, learning to accept their mistakes and move on.

Samuel Beckett's "Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better" is referenced for a reason.

'Ballywalter' is grown up cinema and it's all the more powerful for that.

('Ballywalter' was released in UK and Irish cinemas, including Belfast's Queens Film Theatre, on September 22, 2023)