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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Wendy Ide

Joyride review – Olivia Colman grabs the wheel in odd-couple Irish road movie

Mully (Charlie Reid) and Joy (Olivia Colman) in Joyride.
Broad-brush characters: Mully (Charlie Reid) and Joy (Olivia Colman) in Joyride. Vertigo Releasing Photograph: Vertigo Releasing

Some women embrace the wonders and the challenges of new motherhood with open arms and hearts. Others make plans to give away their newborn to someone more in tune with the whole parenting lark and book themselves a flight to Lanzarote to recuperate in a sea of vodka. Joy (Olivia Colman) falls into the latter camp. But her plan hits a snag when her taxi is stolen by 12-year-old Mully (Charlie Reid) and she wakes to find herself halfway across County Kerry.

This odd-couple comedy road movie paints its characters in brushstrokes so broad you could land a jumbo jet on them, while the intrusively affable score lurches into every scene like a drunk with no concept of personal space. And yet Colman saves the picture, her thorny performance gradually revealing a well of pain.

Watch a trailer for Joyride.
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