Rory O'Shea Was Here

The best thing in this manipulatively uplifting movie about overcoming the limitations of physical disability is the performance of the young Scottish actor James McAvoy in the title role as a muscular dystrophy victim, virtually paralyzed from the neck down, who's able to manipulate his motorized wheelchair with two fingers of his right hand. A flashy, smart-alecky punk type, Rory upsets the quiet, closely-regulated atmosphere at the assisted living center his father places him in, but befriends Michael (Steven Robertson), who's also confined to a wheelchair as a result of cerebral palsy and speaks with a slur that only Rory can decipher. The pair secure a government grant for an apartment, and after hiring a beautiful supermarket clerk (Romola Garai) as their caregiver, both develop a romantic interest in her that she can't reciprocate. For the first hour or so Rory O'Shea Was Here is reasonably affecting, despite the calculation, but in the final reels it takes a turn into full tearjerker mode. Still, even though the film comes perilously close to being a wheelchair-bound variant of Ferris Bueller's Day Off in which Rory teaches the inhibited Michael to loosen up and live before fading out himself, McAvoy cuts a charismatic figure, making what might have simply been a mawkish disease-of-the-week movie into something more palatable. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD extras include an extended party sequence (7 min.), two deleted scenes and an alternate ending (6 min. total), and trailers. Bottom line: a skimpy extras package for a flawed film.] (F. Swietek)