An Everlasting Piece

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Wit amid hardship in small-town Ireland. The familiar scenario has been kicking around for several years now. American director Barry Levinson (Diner, Tin Men) takes these clichés for a test drive in An Everlasting Piece. The film evolves at his leisurely pace. Levinson enjoys the tiny talkative particularities of life, and this script—although he didn't write it—captures the feel of his stateside productions. Set in the 1980s, An Everlasting Piece depicts the foibles of two young men from different denominations in Belfast. Hard times force them to get creative about their employment. With a Fully Monty-esque play on male pride, they decide to start a hairpiece company. Colm (screenwriter Barry McEvoy) and Bronagh (Brian O'Byrne) acquire a database of all Northern Irishmen with baldness from a former toupee monopolist turned serial killer and the fun begins. The social scenes have IRA terrorism as a backdrop; its threatening implications are nullified by the upbeat '80s pop soundtrack.