Director Ruth Meehan
Starring Gemma-Leah Devereux, Siobhán Cullen & Karen Egan
Rated M
Score 6/6

A stand-up comedian’s life changes when she is diagnosed with breast cancer.

The Bright Side is being screened as part of the 2021 Irish Film Festival.

For those of you who might interested apparently The Bright Side was inspired by Anne Gildea’s memoir I’ve Got Cancer, What’s Your Excuse?
As usually with movies being screened for a film festival, I went into this completely unaware about the filmmakers and actors involved with the movie’s production. Writing about most movies like The Bright Side I would suggest that you might not want to watch this one if you have had a bad day, I actually found myself tearing up a couple of times. But what makes The Bright Side such a watchable and heartfelt movie is its sense of humour and director Ruth Meehan’s ability to switch between the heart wrenching and hilarious moments and seemingly being able to make the change seemingly out of nowhere a brilliant example of that is the group conversation during the fishing trip. I loved the soundtrack, and I thought the shots of Kate riding along the embankment where stunning.
I loved Gemma-Leah Devereux gave a brilliant performance and was more than able to straddle the emotional line of the movie, I enjoyed Kate’s stand-up comedy sets through the movie, it was joy to watch such a layered character. I also loved how Meehan made me care for Kate even more with how she showed Kate dealt with the shock of bad news and how it took her and by extension the audience using the movie’s soundtrack. As small as her role I loved Kathleen Kennedy’s performance as Kate’s niece Alex. It was great to have a role like that in a movie dealing with cancer and death roles for children aren’t written and sometimes they are needed because children don’t always have a filter and can ask the questions adults can’t.