REVIEWED - THE MIGHTY CELT: The excellent performances in this Northern Irish drama about a boy and his greyhound bring a collection of stock characters to life, writes Donald Clarke

AMONG Pearse Elliott's several achievements in his touching directoral debut is the way he takes stock characters - the jaundiced ex-IRA man, the widowed non-combatant, the bitter hardliner - and, assisted by consistently strong performances, allows them to develop memorable individual personalities. There are touches of Ken Loach's Kes in this tale of a boy whose relationship with a greyhound brings self-respect, but The Mighty Celt manages to be very much its own beast.

Growing up on the scrubby outskirts of Belfast with his courageous, dryly humorous mother, Kate (Gillian Anderson), young Donal (Tyrone McKenna) earns pocket money working at a local kennel owned by a gruff greyhound trainer (Ken Stott). Donal, a persuasive, charming lad, talks his boss into allowing him to race a plucky dog he has named The Might Celt.

Meanwhile, O (Robert Carlyle), an ex-paramilitary who once had a thing with Kate, slopes back into town for a commemoration (this is, we have recently been informed, what the IRA is now for). O becomes a father figure - or more than that, perhaps? - to Donal and, in one of the film's many gently amusing turns, teaches Kate to drive. Romance follows.

Elliott, previously best known as the writer of last year's Man About Dog, makes good use of the sardonic Northern Irish sense of humour without ever allowing his leads to seem sour or grating. He is assisted in his efforts by a moving performance from Anderson, making a good fist of the accent, and a genuinely superb one from McKenna. The young northerner never showboats or plays cute, but somehow draws the viewer's attention throughout.

If the film has a weakness it is in its apparent desire, manifested somewhat schematically, to address the state of the nation at a particular point in the peace process. Elliot allows his leads to dismiss - not too disrespectfully - offers of assistance from paramilitary vigilantes. Stott stands for the unreconstructed breakaway republican. Just so as nobody gets offended, an animal protection body rather than the PSNI pursues the bad guys. One senses boxes being checked as the movie progresses.

That said, The Mighty Celt is a charming piece of work made with admirable seriousness of purpose. It deserves to do well.