It's hard to believe that a movie about two hairpiece salesmen in war-torn Northern Ireland--a comedy, no less--could work at all, but An Everlasting Piece does work, though perhaps not in the way one would expect. Colm (Barry McEvoy, who also wrote the screenplay) is a new barber at a mental institution and bonds with his fellow barber George (Brian F. O'Byrne) even though Colm is Catholic and George is Protestant. A new patient arrives, who turns out to have been the owner of the only wig company in all of Northern Ireland. Figuring that having a monopoly means easy money, Colm and George convince the new patient to give them his client list, and they're off on a series of rambling comic adventures, aided by Colm's girlfriend Bronagh (Anna Friel, A Midsummer Night's Dream). But when a wig is found at the site of an act of IRA sabotage, the salesmen's lives get suddenly complicated. What makes An Everlasting Piece work is not that it ignores the Irish conflict, but that it pays close attention to it; in fact, the tension of civil strife is a crucial element of the movie's humor, allowing it to dip into a more serious mood without becoming preachy or pretentious. The actors are uniformly excellent; Friel is particularly charming. A comedy about wigs sounds like goofy slapstick; An Everlasting Piece is actually thoughtful and richly human. Directed by Barry Levinson (Diner, Rain Man, Wag the Dog). --Bret Fetzer
2.
Barbers Colm (Barry McEvoy) and George (Brian F. O’Byrne) think they've hit the big time when they take over the only existing Northern Ireland hairpiece franchise from a Bible-toting lunatic (Billy Connolly) who has been admitted to the asylum in which they work. As a Catholic and a Protestant working together, Colm and George think that they'll be able to serve bald men of both ilks, and will have the market conquered. But selling toupees isn't as easy as they think. To make matters worse, they have to contend with deadbeats, the IRA, the British Army, and, worst of all, a competitor--Toupee or Not Toupee--that threatens their exclusivity agreement. When their wig supplier pits Colm and George--who've deemed themselves The Piece People--against Toupee or Not Toupee to see who can sell the most hairpieces and win the Northern Ireland franchise, the race is on for clients. Bronagh (Anna Friel), Colm's feisty girlfriend, develops a creative sales plan that leads to both political and moral decisions for the partners. Despite its humor, Barry McEvoy's script incorporates the tensions felt between Catholics and Protestants in the 1980s. Barry Levinson's direction evokes the spirit and nostalgia of his Baltimore trilogy, which includes DINER, AVALON, and TIN MEN.
3.
From director Barry Levinson comes the hilarious and hair-raising new comedy about an unlikely pair of barbers (Barry McEvoy, Brian F. O'Byrne) who devise an outrageous plan to take over the toupee market. Leaving no rug unturned, they cut their competition down to size.
Irreverent, irrepressible and completely irresistible, An Everlasting Piece is a head-over-heels charmer that the New York Post describes as "The Full Monty meets the Three Stooges." Bristling with razor-sharp wit, this sheer delight puts an entirely new spin on world "piece."
4.
With its main joke in the title, An Everlasting Piece is a black comedy comprised of the most unexpected elements. In "Belfast, some time during the 1980s" the peace process is not going well. Muddling through are the likes of Colm (Barry McEvoy), a Catholic and George (Brian F O'Byrne), a Protestant. They are barbers at the Ballybackey Mental Hospital and immediately find common ground that transcends the violence around them. A get-rich-quick opportunity comes their way from the Hannibal Lecter-like inmate "The Scalper" (the hilarious Billy Connolly). Soon they're caught up in a wig sales competition that leads them into all sorts of trouble, not least a run-in with a small IRA group. Written by actor McEvoy, the backdrop is utterly realistic in being drawn from his own years growing up there. No street wall is without political graffiti, the streets are crawling with soldiers and every news report has a hard-hitting message. But the "gesture" that Colm wants to make--regardless of the friends' religious differences--is made all the more charming by the witty script and almost surreal situations they find themselves in. The film's producers sued Dreamworks for their minimal marketing of what they thought was a political faux-pas. Rest assured, Piece on Earth is a message no one will be offended by.
On The DVD: someone had fun crafting the animated menus with the scribbled writing idea that opens the film. Unfortunately, aside from a trailer and some filmographies of the cast and crew, the only extras here are some pages of informative production notes. A 1:1.85 presentation and 5.1 soundtrack are to be expected for a disc released mere months after the film's theatrical tenure. --Paul Tonks
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