Sad-eyed Ray (David Wilmot) has seemingly spent years in a psychiatric ward, but he is better now. He returns to his home town in semi-rural Ireland to see his dying father and meet the teenage daughter Abbie (Maisie Williams) he abandoned years back, along with her mother, Alice (Kerry Condon). Abbie has grown into a pugnacious little madam, a star of track and field who has been groomed for success all her life by her hyper-competitive stepfather, Frank (James Nesbitt), who is trying to launch inspirational sports videos. No medals for guessing that rapprochement is just around the corner, but it’s quite pleasing that everything doesn’t quite work out according to the divine rules of quirky indie comedy. Apart, that is, from the heavily symbolic sofa Ray carts around on his car for much of the film. On the strength of this and the upcoming The Falling, Williams is emerging as the most promising new talent to come out of Game of Thrones.
