Insider trading

A Congolese immigrant gets mixed up in the world of gangland crime in Irish flick The Front Line, while in You, Me and Dupree, Owen Wilson just can't get the message that the honeymoon is over. By Declan Burke

There's a whiff of sensationalist tabloid headlines emanating from The Front Line (15A), in which Congolese immigrant Joe Yumba (Eriq Ebouaney), now settled in Dublin, finds himself blackmailed by a gang who need insider information in order to rob the bank where he works as a security guard. Happily, writer/director David Gleeson (Cowboys and Angels) is far more concerned with the nuances of human behaviour under extreme pressure than he is with generating headlines. Better still, Ebouaney is a fine actor who shoulders with ease the delicate burden of expressing such subtleties.

Unfortunately, given that The Front Line is a relatively big-budget affair by Irish standards, its overall impact is disappointing. James Frain contributes a compelling performance as gang leader Eddie Gilroy but far too many elements stretch credibility to breaking point, the clumsiness of the bank break-in being the most obvious case in point. Characters pop up when required to shunt the story along and then disappear for the rest of the movie, while other characters appear to be there simply to keep the gender balance on an even keel. The dialogue too is clunky, the contributions from the minor characters are often below par, and the story is rather predictable – although Gleeson does undermine audience perceptions with a revelation near the end, the twist comes too late to salvage what has gone before.

On the positive side, Gleeson and his cinematographer, Volker Tittel, have created a vibrant Dublin. By utilising its dark back-alleys and less salubrious environs, via a judicious use of lighting, the mean streets Joe Yumba has to walk down resonate with a palpable threat akin to cinematic depictions of New York, LA or London. For that, and for Ebouaney's performance, The Front Line is certainly worth seeing.

Whether You, Me and Dupree (12A) is worth seeing will largely depend on your opinion of Owen Wilson. Wilson has made a career of playing lovable losers, and here he offers yet another slacker dude. Jobless, homeless and hopeless, Dupree moves in with newly-weds Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson), bringing with him only the essentials: a beanbag, a game of Ker-Plunk and a stuffed moose head. That he wreaks havoc on their home life is a given and some of the set-pieces and one-liners are belly-laugh funny; for two-thirds of the movie Wilson more or less carries the show with his frat boy antics.

But it wouldn't be a romantic comedy these days without a moral message, and things become rather more serious in the last reel, when Carl sets about facing down Molly's father-in-law (Michael Douglas) and his attempts to sabotage their marriage. When the focus of the movie switches from Dupree to Carl, all the energy isleached from proceedings. Matt Dillon is a fine actor, but a knockabout rom-com isn't the place for intense brooding, even when done for comic effect. Nonetheless, this is amiable slapstick with a gooey heart, and it's hard to resist Wilson's latest clown.

The Front Line ***

You, Me and Dupree ***

Below: Eriq Ebouaney in The Front Line