Round Ireland with a Fridge

Title: Round Ireland with a Fridge
Rating: 3/5
Genre: Comedy
Starring: Tony Hawks, Ed Byrne
Director: Ed Bye

“So how much is the bet for”
“£100”
“...and how much did the fridge cost?”
“£130”

So, continuing my accidental fridge-themed film stint comes the film that was preceded by the book of the same name. Not to be confused with the well known professional skater Tony Hawk, Tony Hawks is a little known English comedian who perhaps unsurprisingly, first made waves with this aforementioned book. As a comedian, he's not particularly amusing, which as you can imagine comes as something of a hindrance, but his material works not because its well written but because he's the only middle-aged man mad enough to carry out stunts like this. Round Ireland with a Fridge is a journey to the heart of Ireland, and a voyage of self discovery filled with both triumphs and defeats.

And much like his follow up novel, “Playing the Moldovans at Tennis,” it all began with a bottle of whiskey. Following a discussion about his old re-hashed material at a recent live performance, his best mate Kevin starts telling him “he's lost it,” and recalling his favourite anecdote about how on his first trip to Dublin saw an old toothless man hitch-hiking with a fridge, bets he couldn't circumnavigate Ireland hitch-hiking in one calender month. Morning comes, and after being reminded of his bet sets off to traverse the great nation, domestic appliance in tow. Quickly gaining the attention of a national radio show, they start hounding him during his travels and document his exploits live to the nation; in a matter of days he becomes a national sensation.

Now perhaps I am a little biased, I do have fond memories of reading this way back when despite remembering next to nothing that occurred. One thing I expect I would have remembered was some tacked on love interest. Granted, the epilogue that happened two years after the book couldn't exactly have been there, but I barely remember her name being mentioned at all. Instead of some romantic event it was an epic absurd journey of their exploits together, the fridge taking on its own persona being the main point; a point which I'm delighted to say wasn't entirely lost, merely forgotten as the film began to draw to a close. The bonding that occurred between the unlikely pair seemed glossed over in quick montage sequences, displaced by this desire to create a lovesick ending.

But the main problem here is that the comical aspect that worked so well in the book simply doesn't here; the ergonomics of actually carrying out the journey is far better as a fabrication of the mind than a more realistic visual journey. As you might expect a lot of time is spent thumbing for a lift, but whilst this is easily glossed over in a few words, the only way to effectively emphasise passage of time in a film is to have an extended sequence. that said, given the nature of the source material, I don't think I could have asked for a much better adaptation (except for perhaps more jokes and less romance); the Irish accent is spot on since they're Irish actors (huzzah!) and the events all remain true to the book, if slightly altered and embellished, but sadly this is one story which simply doesn't translate well.