Sharon Curley (Tina Kellegher) is 20 years old, a member of a large, working class Dublin family.  Her father is Des Curley (Colm Meaney), plain-spoken, a bit old fashioned, but also someone who sincerely loves his family and works hard to give them the best that he can.  Des is someone who brags about the fact that he hasn’t cried in over 20 years.  Of course, when he says that, he means that he hasn’t cried sober.  Crying drunk, especially while watching the World Cup, doesn’t count.

Speaking of drinking, one night out with her friends leads to Sharon finding herself pregnant.  As Sharon is young and unmarried, the identity of the father becomes a subject of gossip in her close-knit neighborhood.  At first, Sharon refuses to tell anyone who the father is.  Eventually, she confesses that the father was a Spanish sailor who picked her up and gave her the greatest night of passion of her life.  Of course, Sharon’s lying.  The father is actually a rather unimpressive middle-aged man named George Burgess (Pat Laffan).  George picked her up while she was inebriated.  He’s the type of person who kept her panties after they had sex but expects to be thanked for not showing them to his friends.  George reacts to the prospect of becoming a father by disappearing.

Sharon struggles, with both the gossip and the knowledge that her neighbors, people who she has known her entire life, are judging her for being pregnant and unmarried.  Continually, she is asked, “Who are you having the baby for?,” as if she’s doing a favor for the man who knocked her up and then abandoned her.  Sharon decides to keep the baby and even has a laugh at the thought of naming it Georgina.  Des, at first, has a hard time understanding Sharon’s decision but eventually, he supports his daughter.  He even reads all of the pamphlets on pregnancy and giving birth.  When a young man at the hospital mentions that he’s waiting on the delivery of his third child, Des offers him a pamphlet on “family planning.”

Made for British television and released theatrically in 1993, The Snapper is based on a book by Roddy Doyle.  The book was a sequel to The Commitments but, because 20th Century Fox owned the rights to The Commitments, the family’s name was changed for the film version of The Snapper.  The Rabbittes became the Curleys and there’s certainly no mention of the fact that Sharon’s brother once managed a soul band.  That said, Colm Meaney reprises his role as the befuddled but loving family patriarch. He and Tina Kellegher give performances in The Snapper that feel authentic and honest.  Every laugh, every smile, and even every tear feels earned.

Much as The Commitments did with music, The Snapper uses a domestic drama, the type that has inspired countless glossy films, to examine the realities of being working class in 20th Century Dublin.  With the tight-knit community full of judgment and not much support, Sharon learns who she can and cannot depend on but she also learns that’s she’s far stronger than anyone, including herself, knew.  The Snapper is a wonderful snapshot of life.