Rent The Grass Arena (1992)
4.2 of 5 from 56 ratings
1h 36min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Born in London to poor Irish parents, brutalised at home and hardened on the streets by the age of 7, John Healy is consumed by alcoholism as a teenager. A promising career as a boxer is destroyed by drink as he enters the 'grass arena', a savage community of vagrant alcoholics, ruled by psychopaths and peopled by beggars - who will do anything to quench their thirst. They have nothing to lose. Ending up in prison, he faces a certain death until a fellow inmate shows him how to play chess, for which he displays a natural instinct. One addiction is about to replace another...
- Actors:
- Mark Rylance, Pete Postlethwaite, Lynsey Baxter, Marian McLoughlin, Billy Boyle, Andrew Dicks, Nick Dawney, Simon Napper, John Garrett, Brian Hall, Gerard Horan, Clive Russell, Louis Mellis, Anna Keaveney, Paddy Joyce, John O'Toole, Harry Landis, Ronan Vibert, Lyndam Gregory, Julian Firth
- Directors:
- Gillies MacKinnon
- Writers:
- Frank Deasy, John Healy
- Studio:
- Simply Media
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Sports & Sport Films
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Reviews (2) of The Grass Arena
The Grass Arena - The Grass Arena review by AO
The London of this film is not the whimsical London of 'Mary Poppins' or 'Notting Hill'. There's no chance of John Healy bumping into a gorgeous film star and falling in love with her. Not in 'The Grass Arena'. Healy's world is cruel from childhood. Bullied, stigmatized for his family's history and brutalized by his father.
And it gets worse from there. Homelessness. filth, alcoholism, prison, violence and madness. It's a very difficult watch, with the vomit inducing medication they are forced to take a particular low. Be warned, parts of it are grim. Of course, the main character does begin a journey of slow self recovery where he is opened to a better world of sorts. But still one where he suffers prejudice and discrimination because of who he is and who he's been.
Mark Rylance is superb as Healy. portraying him as he must have been. Things look up towards the end. They had to!
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Despite a committed performance from Rylance, this is a mainly inaccessible drama - The Grass Arena review by TB
A very grim and not particularly accessible drama. In many ways, it shares many themes as My Left Foot, except in this case the disability is replaced with alcoholism. John Healy's story is one of a difficult childhood and slip into drink, then finding his saviour in chess.
Whilst there are many interesting elements shown, such as mental health and xenophobia, many of these are not explored and simply thrown onto the screen, hoping some of them will stick. The script itself is also extremely poorly written, jumping about all over the place and at times very incoherent.
Whilst Mark Rylance does try his best and there are some interesting flourishs he brings to the role, ultimately he is failed by a poor script and direction. The only huge positive from this role is that it got him the part of Jay in Intimacy, which is a far superior piece of drama.
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