Movie · 1991 · Comedy, Drama, Music · 1h 58m · R · English
Curator score: 7.5/10 (82.5K ratings)
They had nothing to lose, they risked it all.
Overview
Jimmy Rabbitte, just a thick-ya out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.5/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.84/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 73
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Alan Parker
Production
Beacon Communications, First Film Company, Dirty Hands Productions
Cast
Robert Arkins, Michael Aherne, Angeline Ball, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Dave Finnegan, Bronagh Gallagher, Félim Gormley, Glen Hansard, Dick Massey, Johnny Murphy, Ken McCluskey, Andrew Strong, Colm Meaney, Anne Kent, Andrea Corr, Gerard Cassoni, Ruth Fairclough, Lindsay Fairclough, Michael O'Reilly, Liam Carney
Where to watch
fuboTV, Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus
Curator Review
Verdict
A warm, funny, and sharply observed working-class music story with terrific performances and a soundtrack that does most of the emotional heavy lifting. It’s less about fame than about community, ambition, and the chaos of trying to make art with a bunch of stubborn amateurs.
Best for
fans of music-driven ensemble comedies
viewers who like working-class stories with heart
people who enjoy energetic, quotable dialogue
audiences drawn to feel-good rise-and-fall band movies
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted or especially polished drama
you dislike abrasive banter and constant swearing
you prefer original songs over soul covers
you need a story with a neat, triumphant ending
Overview
The Commitments is one of the great “let’s put on a band” movies because it understands that the real drama is never the gig itself. It’s the personalities, the ego, the jokes, the flirtations, the arguments, and the fragile hope that a group of ordinary people can briefly become something bigger than themselves.
Worth noting
Alan Parker keeps the film moving with a light touch, but the movie’s real engine is its cast, who make the Dublin setting feel lived-in and specific without sanding off the rough edges. The humor is blunt, the energy is infectious, and the performances have the loose, scrappy charm of people discovering they can actually do this.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the music, which is used not as decoration but as a kind of social glue. The film is funny, but it’s also quietly moving about class, aspiration, and the dignity of taking your dream seriously even when everyone around you knows it may not last. It’s a crowd-pleaser with real soul.
Top Letterboxd reviews
adelaide (4.5★) · 460 likes
HEROINE KILLS
conor (5★) · 405 likes
“You're missin' the point. The success of the band was irrelevant - you raised their expectations of life, you lifted their horizons.”
Todd Gaines (5★) · 401 likes
Everybody needs hope. Everybody deserves to dream. With Alan Parker's The Commitments, we cheer on a group of working class young people from Dublin, Ireland and laugh, cry and smile as their goal of musical stardom is within their grasp. Will they seize the moment? Does the end result even matter?
I'm not sure if music has ever looked so brilliant on film. Credit must be given to editor, Gerry Hambling. The musical performances are simply flawless. The reason why… more