This four-part miniseries, written by playwright Billy Roche for Irish TV, combines the doomed crime caper with small town drama. Frank (Adam Fergus), a small-time entrepreneur with a failing car dealership, concocts a plan to kidnap the wife and daughter of Desmond (Aidan McArdle), the bank manager ready to foreclose on Frank's business, and he hires a local hood (Ned Dennehy) to do the dirty work. Roped into the scheme is Danny (Damien Molony), a good-natured boxer and minor local celebrity (he went to the Olympics but choked), who becomes a loose end when one of the victims recognizes him. The fallout from the crime reverberates through the community, as hero-worshipping local kids and Frank's own daughter try to protect Danny from the police and the kidnappers. Clean Break offers an interesting social portrait of dreamers taking shortcuts to success, down-and-out folks with nothing to lose, and a bank manager who exhibits all of the clichés of arrogance and superiority surrounding the rich and the powerful. It's a well-made series, more character drama than crime thriller, set in the culture of poverty and hopelessness plaguing a small town that is still awaiting the economic recovery, but it is also more downbeat and low-key than similar dramas from Great Britain, with a palpable sense of anger and resentment under the surface. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
Clean Break
Acorn, 2 discs, 214 min., not rated, DVD: $39.99 January 23, 2017
Clean Break
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