"Saltwater" is the directorial debut of Conor McPherson, the writer of the very funny film, "I Went Down". As such, "Saltwater" promises much but delivers very little. It is a disjointed and ill-conceived attempt to do for Dublin what "Short Cuts" did for Los Angeles. The main stories concern an Irish-Italian café owner in debt to the local bookie and the attempt by one of his two sons to exact revenge for his father's humiliation, the adventures of another son of the above man and his latchkey schoolfriend, and a university lecturer and friend of the above family who embarks on a fling with a college student. There are vague references to a woman who could possibly be the mother of the family who is no longer present but this is never made clear.
The separate plots barely relate to each other and have significant holes which stretch credulity. Furthermore, the story set in the university (University College Dublin, for the benefit of location freaks) seems to exist entirely for the purposes of its 'hilarious' climax. Characters are not well developed and some are almost cardboard cutouts, such as the schoolgoing son, his friend and their teacher, to name but a few. The stories do not develop logically and fail to reach any satisfactory conclusion leaving many loose ends unresolved.
Finally, the film is so blandly photographed as to be a TV film rather than a large screen motion picture. There is no appreciation of the art of cinema at all. McPherson is better known as a writer for theatre and this is patently obvious from "Saltwater". It appears that he has made the transition from stage to screen too quickly for his own good. Overall, I cannot recommend people to go and see this film.
