Film Review: Róise and Frank is sweet-natured, touching — and cathartic

Written and directed by Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy, Róise and Frank is a charming meditation on grief and loss.

Róise and Frank

★★★★☆

Róise and Frank (PG) is a charming meditation on grief and loss.

Mourning the recent death of her husband Frank, Waterford widow Róise (Bríd Ní Neachtain) finds herself persecuted by a stray dog who, bizarrely, has a preternatural instinct for nosing out Frank’s most treasured possessions. Could the stray, who shares her husband’s passion for hurling, be Frank reincarnated?

Written and directed by Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy, Róise and Frank proceeds as a gently comic account of Róise’s gradual acceptance of the impossible, as the dog — now christened Frank – sets about restoring hope and changing lives.

Róise and Frank.

Bríd Ní Neachtain is in terrific form here as a woman unswerving in her belief, regardless of what her pragmatic son Alan (Cillian O’Gairbhi) or neighbour Donncha (Lorcan Cranitch) might think.

Sweet-natured and touching, with a cathartic quality that belies its whimsical tone, Róise and Frank is almost certainly the best Irish language film about the transmigration of souls you’ll see this year.

(cinema release)