Commitments (1991)

New York Times
"...A group of talented newcomers....A hyperkinetic jumble, filling the air with song..." 08/14/1991 p.C11

USA Today
"...An infectious little movie....Robust performances..." 08/14/1991 p.4D

Los Angeles Times
"...There's no resisting THE COMMITMENTS....When that band starts to sing, the screen fills with genuine life..." 08/30/1991 p.F1

Uncut
"[With] a stirring soundtrack and exuberant performances." 08/01/2000 p.130

Washington Post 8 of 10
In Alan Parker's delightful The Commitments the reality is working-class Dublin. The fantasy is soul music. A group of amateur musicians aims for the big time, the songs of Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding hovering over them like the Holy Grail. If the Commitments don't become the greatest soul band of all time, it's the world's fault. Then again, it could be because they fight so much. Parker, who failed to get to the heart of the matter in Mississippi Burning and Come See the Paradise, finally goes for the gut. Assembling a talented group of musical non-actors, he creates an inspired, effervescent drama. Commitments combines the giddiness of old Hollywood musicals with the frenetic spirit of A Hard Day's Night. It's also suffused with salty Irish slang, most of which can't be printed -- or understood, for that matter. The musical numbers, actually performed by the on-screen band, are sensational. Lead singer Andrew Strong can really belt out a song. This is a once-in-a-lifetime movie for these performers. This is their moment and they play it to the hilt... Commitments, adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais from the Roddy Doyle book, exults in its own world. The characters, with their foibles and verbal joustings, are everything. There's something poetically sardonic in every sentence they utter... - Desson Howe
 
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Alan Parker's The Commitments is a loud, rollicking, comic extravaganza about a rock band from the poorest precincts of North Dublin that decides to play soul music. The organizer of the band is the lean, ingenious Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins), whose suggestion is greeted with puzzlement by his friends. They like soul music, yes, but they don't particularly identify with it. Rabbitte's logic is persuasive: "The Irish are the blacks of Europe. Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. North Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin." The movie is based on a novel by Roddy Doyle, a North Dublin school teacher, but it is founded on charm. Parker introduces a Dickensian gallery of characters, throws them all into the pot, keeps them talking, and makes them sing a lot. The result is a movie that doesn't lead anywhere in particular and may not have a profound message - other than that it's hell at the top, however low the top may be. But the movie is filled with life and energy, and the music is honest. The Commitments is one of the few movies about a fictional band that's able to convince us the band is real and actually plays together. Jimmy Rabbitte is the mercurial force at the center of the group, holding it together, but the real star of the music in the movie is a large, shambling, unkempt young man named Deco Cuffe (Andrew Strong). After Rabbitte has disappointing luck at a series of auditions for his new band (there's a funny montage showing the would-be talent knocking at his door), he finds Deco at a wedding party, where he picks up the microphone and begins to sing while the band is on break... Could there have been something more? Parker never promises us a profound human drama here, and the band is so good that maybe music was the best way to go... As film, this is not one of the major works by the man who directed Midnight Express, Birdy, Shoot the Moon and Mississippi Burning. But as music and human comedy, it works just fine. - Roger Ebert