Albert Finney gives a superb performance at Alfred Byrne in "A Man of No Importance." An upper middle-aged man living in Belfast, he is a warm, tender-hearted person who loves the theater, literature, poetry, etc. He's also very naïve – innocent in the ways of the world, as more than one character calls him. He has never married and shares a home with his sister. He does the cooking, and works as a public bus conductor. While he appreciates the beauty of women, he is more attracted to one young man – his coworker and friend, Robbie, who drives his bus.
Alfred has organized people in the community to stage plays. Most of them are older folks – the butcher, a retiree, a housewife, and others. He's looking to stage a new play and lines up the cast one by one. In the course of this, he tries to help a young woman who is pregnant but not married. She has led him to believe that she has a boyfriend who lives elsewhere. He is shocked when he goes to visit her and breaks in on her in bed with another young man. That arouses his passion and he visits a gay bar only to be rolled and beaten by some of the patrons.
In all of this, Finney gives a fine, sensitive performance. But for his role and the good performances of others in the cast, this film would not rate much at all. The screenplay has gaping holes in it, and the story is much too disjointed. Other reviewers have noted the incomplete script. What happened to the play that was underway? What prompted Adele to up and leave all of a sudden to go to London to have her baby? Who did she know there? Albert Finney had come a long way from playing the 1963 dashing romantic rogue in "Tom Jones." Whatever role he has played, in the many genres of films he has made, he has never failed to impress audiences with his talent and joy in entertaining.
Alfred has organized people in the community to stage plays. Most of them are older folks – the butcher, a retiree, a housewife, and others. He's looking to stage a new play and lines up the cast one by one. In the course of this, he tries to help a young woman who is pregnant but not married. She has led him to believe that she has a boyfriend who lives elsewhere. He is shocked when he goes to visit her and breaks in on her in bed with another young man. That arouses his passion and he visits a gay bar only to be rolled and beaten by some of the patrons.
In all of this, Finney gives a fine, sensitive performance. But for his role and the good performances of others in the cast, this film would not rate much at all. The screenplay has gaping holes in it, and the story is much too disjointed. Other reviewers have noted the incomplete script. What happened to the play that was underway? What prompted Adele to up and leave all of a sudden to go to London to have her baby? Who did she know there? Albert Finney had come a long way from playing the 1963 dashing romantic rogue in "Tom Jones." Whatever role he has played, in the many genres of films he has made, he has never failed to impress audiences with his talent and joy in entertaining.