The Delinquent Season

The Delinquent Season is a 2018 Irish romantic drama film written and directed by Mark O'Rowe in his feature film directorial debut. It follows the story of two married couples in suburban Dublin who begin to experience difficulties in their respective relationships. The film was released theatrically in Ireland on 27 April 2018 by Element Pictures.

Plot
Yvonne is waiting in a restaurant alone for someone. An undisclosed man arrives and greets Yvonne.

Jim and his wife Danielle are hosting a dinner party, where Danielle's best friend Yvonne and her husband Chris are guests. A disagreement erupts between Yvonne and Chris.

One day, Jim, locked out of his house after collecting his two children from school and his wife Danielle at work, has nowhere to go. He visits Yvonne to collect the spare key to his house. Jim learns that Chris's outbursts and mood swings stem from a terminal brain disease. Chris has not yet told his children or Yvonne and swears Jim to secrecy.

Yvonne, having learnt of Chris's terminal illness, is angry with Jim and also rejects the prospect of pursuing a relationship with him, despite her early encouragement in the affair that he leave Danielle and she leave Chris.

One afternoon, Jim falls asleep and is late picking his children up from school. He lies to the headteacher as to why this was, but he is caught later by Danielle when he tells her a different lie. Danielle asks for the passcode to Jim's phone and he refuses. He later confesses to having an affair, but refuses to say who with and is forced to leave their house.

Jim turns up on Yvonne's doorstep. He wants to know if Yvonne will return to him upon Chris's death and he confesses his love for her. Yvonne is annoyed at this and that Jim knew Chris was ill when he slept with her.

Jim goes to a bar and runs into Orla, a waitress he previously had a dispute with in a restaurant. Jim wakes up next to Orla in her bed the following morning. He receives a phone call from Danielle informing him of Chris's death. Orla asks to see Jim again, but he rejects her. In response, Orla verbally abuses Jim and orders him to leave.

At Chris's funeral, Danielle is there with her new partner, who Jim's kids like. This upsets Jim, leading him to attack Danielle's new partner who gets the upper hand. Jim ends up in hospital and has an emotional breakdown in the hospital waiting room.

Sometime later, Yvonne is waiting in a restaurant alone, as she was at the beginning of the film. It is revealed that the person she was waiting for was Jim. Yvonne suggests she and Jim rekindle their relationship, but Jim is now in a relationship. Yvonne returns home and cries. Jim returns home to Orla, with whom he is living. Jim assures Orla he felt nothing for Yvonne upon seeing her again.

Cast

 * Cillian Murphy as Jim
 * Eva Birthistle as Danielle
 * Catherine Walker as Yvonne
 * Andrew Scott as Chris
 * Lydia McGuinness as Orla

Production
The Delinquent Season was filmed in Dublin.

Reception
Harry Guerin gave the film four stars, remarking, "If this film reminds us of anything, it's not to let go lightly."

Tara Brady of The Irish Times was much more negative, giving it two stars out of five, saying, "The denizens of The Delinquent Season are all ghastly and yet – despite valiant efforts from a talented ensemble cast – not quite horrid enough to be interesting or engaging. [...] O'Rowe's stylised language – an often potent dialect that sets observational banter to Mametian rhythms – sounds off-key on a big screen."