Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie

Those who dislike the sitcom won't like "d'movie", but there is more to Mrs Brown than meets the eye. Brendan O'Carroll's alter ego is brash and slightly off-putting to look at, not least because Mrs Brown evokes memories of everything that was bad about 1970s comedy, where the mother-in-law was often the butt of jokes. On the other hand, this Irish matriarch is a likeable heroine despite her coarse manners and potty mouth because she puts her kids first and, in this big-screen outing, tries to save Dublin's historic Moore Street Market, too. O'Carroll employs familiar tricks from the TV show, addressing the audience and acknowledging the artifice (of film-making and gender swapping) to put a twist on jokes that would otherwise be too outrageous or just plain silly to swallow. This also justifies some bad acting from the supporting cast, except for O'Carroll's real-life sister Eilish, a reliable sidekick. Inevitably, the absence of a studio audience robs the formula of some of its fizz, but there remains a spirit of anarchy to keep fans tickled.