MALCOLM McDowell is a marvelous actor fondly remembered for such films as “A Clockwork Orange” and “If . . .” It’s a cinch, however, that there will be few if any happy recollections for “Red Roses and Petrol,” the most recent McDowell movie to reach New York.
It is adapted from a play that director/co-writer Tamar Simon Hoffs has done little to open up for the big screen.
Most of the story takes place in Dublin at the wake for Enda Doyle (McDowell, seen mainly in flashback). The sad occasion brings together Doyle’s wife and three adult children for the first time in years.
As even a novice moviegoer would expect, they argue and drink, then argue and drink some more.
Nothing happens that hasn’t been done better in other films, among them Thomas Vinterberg’s excellent 1998 “The Celebration.” In fact, you will be better off watching that Danish winner on DVD than seeing “Red Roses and Petrol” under any conditions.
Running time: 97 minutes. Not rated (adult themes). At the Empire in Manhattan, the Brooklyn Heights and the Cinemart in Forest Hills, Queens.