When Brendan Met Trudy

A brashly self-referential romantic comedy and the first original screenplay by Roddy Doyle (whose novels were made into THE VAN, THE SNAPPER and THE COMMITMENTS), this strenuously quirky film flaunts its own cleverness at every turn. But beneath its pretention to undermine romantic comedy conventions, it's a by-the-book (or rather, by-the-movie) entertainment about opposites attracting. Shy Irish schoolteacher Brendan (Peter McDonald) has a batch of cold, relentlessly critical relatives and a job at a private boy's school he dislikes so much he can't be bothered to learn the name of a single pupil. His only loves are cinema and choir singing. And then he meets Trudy...