# The Snapper
**The Snapper** is a 1993 comedy-drama directed by [Stephen Frears](https://www.edgepedia.org/stephen-frears) and written by [Roddy Doyle](https://www.edgepedia.org/roddy-doyle), adapted from Doyle's novel about a young Dublin woman's unplanned pregnancy and her family's reaction to it. It was produced by BBC Films, screened on British television before receiving a cinema release, and became the second film drawn from Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy, between *The Commitments* (1991) and *The Van* (1996).[1](https://www.miramax.com/movie/the-snapper/) • [2](https://investigacion.unirioja.es/documentos/6299a529471a0e7777aa2148/f/697911ea08868e7e6bd67442.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writer | Stephen Frears; screenplay by Roddy Doyle from his own novel[1](https://www.miramax.com/movie/the-snapper/) |
| Principal cast | Colm Meaney (Dessie Curley), Tina Kellegher (Sharon Curley), Ruth McCabe (Kay Curley), Pat Laffan (George Burgess)[1](https://www.miramax.com/movie/the-snapper/) • [3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/17/a-snapper-to-catch/6c246623-cf7b-4652-aaa0-c9374c9a04e6/) |
| Production | A BBC Films production in association with BBC Worldwide, made for less than $2 million[4](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/bbcfilm/films/the-snapper) • [5](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-11-28-ca-61759-story.html) |
| Broadcast and release | Screened on BBC2 in April 1993 to an audience of over five million; UK theatrical release 6 August 1993[6](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77050041.pdf) • [4](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/bbcfilm/films/the-snapper) |
| Awards | People's Choice Award, 1993 Toronto International Film Festival; Golden Globe nomination for Colm Meaney, Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical (1994)[1](https://www.miramax.com/movie/the-snapper/) |
| Reception | 97% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (31 reviews); Metascore 83 on Metacritic; US gross $674,800[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/snapper) • [8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-snapper-1993/critic-reviews/) |
| Running time | 91 minutes per BBC records; 95 minutes per the Quebec film classification registry[4](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/bbcfilm/films/the-snapper) • [9](https://repertoire.cinema.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/film/le-bebe-57802/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film is set in Barrytown, a working-class Dublin suburb, and centers on the Curley family: Dessie ([Colm Meaney](https://www.edgepedia.org/colm-meaney)), an affable plasterer with a taste for drink, Kay ([Ruth McCabe](https://www.edgepedia.org/ruth-mccabe)), and their children. Sharon Curley (Tina Kellegher), the oldest daughter, aged 20 and still living at home, announces that she is pregnant and refuses to name the father.[10](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/84805--the-snapper/) • [11](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-snapper-1993)
The refusal turns the pregnancy into a neighborhood event. Gossip spreads through the local pubs, and Dessie, chafing at the mockery directed at his daughter, becomes the film's other center of attention as he tries to manage the situation.[12](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/17/the-snapper-pregnant-with-humor/12b3cc59-57b5-415d-a57a-07a26e36095a/) When Dessie hears that the father may be George Burgess (Pat Laffan), the father of one of Sharon's friends, he goes on the warpath; Sharon deflects him with a story about an untraceable Spanish sailor. She eventually leaves for her own apartment, and Dessie must make up with her if he wants to see his grandchild.[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/17/a-snapper-to-catch/6c246623-cf7b-4652-aaa0-c9374c9a04e6/) The film ends with the family waiting at the hospital as Sharon gives birth, the "snapper" of the title being Irish slang for an infant.[1](https://www.miramax.com/movie/the-snapper/)
## Production and the television-to-cinema path
**A small BBC film.** Frears came to the project after the commercial failure of his big-budget Hollywood film *Hero* (1992), which cost an estimated $42 million and recouped only about half that amount in North America. He had seen Doyle's script and accepted the offer to film it for the BBC for less than $2 million.[5](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-11-28-ca-61759-story.html) Frears initially felt the film was too small for theatrical release, a stipulation he had also made with *My Beautiful Laundrette*.[6](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77050041.pdf)
The broadcast changed that calculation. *The Snapper* was screened on BBC2 in April 1993, drew an audience of over five million, and attracted widespread critical acclaim. Pierre Henri Deleau, founder and director of the Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight, asked for it to open that section; Frears agreed to a festival screening, where it was a triumph with the audience, and then to a theatrical release. According to executive producer Mark Shivas, it became the first film to succeed in UK cinemas after a television showing.[6](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77050041.pdf) The film went on to a cinema release in Britain, Ireland, and France.[5](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-11-28-ca-61759-story.html)
## Reception
Critical response was strongly positive. The film won the People's Choice Award at the 1993 [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival), and Colm Meaney received a 1994 Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical for his performance as Dessie.[1](https://www.miramax.com/movie/the-snapper/) On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 97% Tomatometer from 31 reviews, and its Metacritic Metascore of 83 falls in that site's "universal acclaim" band, with 18 positive reviews and none mixed or negative.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/snapper) • [8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-snapper-1993/critic-reviews/) In the United States it grossed $674,800.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/snapper)
Critics singled out the ensemble comedy of family life and pub talk, and Meaney's performance as the exasperated but resilient father. Roger Ebert praised the film for seeing its characters "with warmth and acceptance" and for earning its laughs through believable human foibles; Time Out found it tougher and more downbeat than *The Commitments* but judged its resolution more thoroughly earned.[11](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-snapper-1993) • [13](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-snapper) In a 2021 RTÉ documentary on the Barrytown films, Frears described *The Snapper* as the best film he ever made.[14](https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2021/0521/1223004-its-georgie-burgess-time-in-sundays-back-to-barrytown/)
## Place in the Barrytown Trilogy
*The Snapper* is the second screen adaptation of Doyle's Barrytown novels. *The Commitments*, about a Dublin soul band, was adapted in 1991 and directed by [Alan Parker](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-parker); *The Van* was filmed in 1996, with Doyle as screenwriter and Frears as director.[2](https://investigacion.unirioja.es/documentos/6299a529471a0e7777aa2148/f/697911ea08868e7e6bd67442.pdf) The Curley family of *The Snapper* were originally the Rabbittes in Doyle's fiction; Doyle sold the Rabbitte name to the company that made *The Commitments*, so the film's family carries a different surname while inhabiting the same world.[15](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/film-power-and-the-pint-pop-culture-plays-its-tune-in-ireland-in-the-snapper-while-tom-and-jerry-break-all-the-rules-1459442.html) Reviewers noted that Frears steered away from the gloss and energy Parker brought to *The Commitments*, keeping the story closer to kitchen-sink realism.[15](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/film-power-and-the-pint-pop-culture-plays-its-tune-in-ireland-in-the-snapper-while-tom-and-jerry-break-all-the-rules-1459442.html) • [3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/17/a-snapper-to-catch/6c246623-cf7b-4652-aaa0-c9374c9a04e6/)
## Later reassessment
A 2023 Irish Times retrospective by Hugh Linehan, published near the film's 30th anniversary, argued that the event leading to Sharon's pregnancy is a rape: semiconscious Sharon is assaulted by Georgie Burgess in a pub car park. Linehan noted that the ambiguity had persisted for decades, citing a 1993 Irish Times piece by Nuala O'Faolain that described Burgess as having "more-or-less raped" Sharon, and argued that both book and film reveal how unconscious misogyny and ambiguity about sexual violence were embedded in Irish society at the time.[16](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/2023/01/28/no-laughing-matter-the-snapper-asks-troubling-questions-that-werent-noticed-at-the-time/) The same retrospective recorded the film's unusual path: initially regarded not as a film but as a one-off made-for-TV BBC drama, it was propelled by positive reaction to the festival circuit, an international cinema release, and Meaney's Golden Globe nomination.[16](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/2023/01/28/no-laughing-matter-the-snapper-asks-troubling-questions-that-werent-noticed-at-the-time/)
## References
1. [The Snapper, Miramax official site](https://www.miramax.com/movie/the-snapper/)
2. [Mar Asensio Aróstegui and José Díaz-Cuesta, academic paper on The Snapper](https://investigacion.unirioja.es/documentos/6299a529471a0e7777aa2148/f/697911ea08868e7e6bd67442.pdf)
3. [Desson Howe, "A 'Snapper' to Catch", The Washington Post, 16 December 1993](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/17/a-snapper-to-catch/6c246623-cf7b-4652-aaa0-c9374c9a04e6/)
4. [The Snapper, BBC Films catalogue](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/bbcfilm/films/the-snapper)
5. ["Is Smaller Indeed Better?", Los Angeles Times, 28 November 1993](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-11-28-ca-61759-story.html)
6. [A Critical Survey of BBC Films (PhD thesis, University of Glasgow)](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/77050041.pdf)
7. [The Snapper, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/snapper)
8. [The Snapper critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-snapper-1993/critic-reviews/)
9. [Le bébé (The Snapper), Répertoire des films classés, Québec](https://repertoire.cinema.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/film/le-bebe-57802/)
10. [The Snapper, ACMI collection record](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/84805--the-snapper/)
11. [Roger Ebert, review of The Snapper, 17 December 1993](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-snapper-1993)
12. [Hal Hinson, "'The Snapper': Pregnant with Humor", The Washington Post, 16 December 1993](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/17/the-snapper-pregnant-with-humor/12b3cc59-57b5-415d-a57a-07a26e36095a/)
13. [The Snapper, Time Out film review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-snapper)
14. ["Georgie Burgess! Sunday's Back to Barrytown celebrates The Snapper", RTÉ, 21 May 2021](https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2021/0521/1223004-its-georgie-burgess-time-in-sundays-back-to-barrytown/)
15. [Adam Mars-Jones, "Power and the pint", The Independent, 5 August 1993](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/film-power-and-the-pint-pop-culture-plays-its-tune-in-ireland-in-the-snapper-while-tom-and-jerry-break-all-the-rules-1459442.html)
16. [Hugh Linehan, "No laughing matter: The Snapper asks troubling questions that weren't noticed at the time", The Irish Times, 28 January 2023](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/2023/01/28/no-laughing-matter-the-snapper-asks-troubling-questions-that-werent-noticed-at-the-time/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 1990 to 1994 › Titles K to W*
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