Dating Amber: Film Review

Cast: Fionn O'Shea, Lola Petticrew, Sharon Horgan, 

Director: David Freyne

Set in mid-1990s smalltown Ireland, romance coming-of-age comedy Dating Amber is like a mix of Derry Girls and Sex Education all rolled into a ball of cringe and cliche and transposed to the screen.

Fionn O'Shea's stifled Eddie comes from an army family. With his father pushing him into trying out for the local camp amid fears of what people will think if his son fails, and with his mum (Horgan, massively underused here) starting to wonder if her marriage is worth it, Eddie has a lot to keep him occupied.

But when schoolyard banter turns to who he fancies, his ever-so-slightly-too-long gazes at some of his male counterparts thrusts him into making a coupling-up choice he's not sexually comfortable with.

However, Lola Petticrew's outsider Amber sees Eddie's awkwardness and takes pity on him, suggesting they stifle both their same-sex affectations with a faux relationship to stop the school yard barbs of "Lezzer" and "Faggot."

As the pair hit it off, it soon becomes clear they're on more different journeys. Amber's more keen on coming out, whereas Eddie is more fixated on repression and following in his father's footsteps and expectations....

Dating Amber follows a well-worn path with relative aplomb and delivers something gentle and at times, amusing in Ireland's Kildare.

With the central odd couple of denial, Amber and Eddie make easy bedfellows, even if the story signals for miles off what's about to happen, and then delivers it with such workmanlike edges you'd be excused from checking mentally out during proceedings.

But director David Freyne doesn't overegg the coming-out pudding, and thankfully, it just manages to teeter on the right side of pleasantly plucky. With more thrown into the script's oneliners than the overall narrative, the film falters a little in its final act, with resolution coming a little too easily and too formulaically for its protagonists.

However, Petticrew's heart and O'Shea's earnestness manage to help Dating Amber through its relationship troubles and platonic friendships of ups and downs. Just don't be surprised if you've forgotten it all the day after viewing.