Danny (Geoff Wigdor) and Brian (Nick Thurston) deal with struggles thrown at them in "White Irish Drinkers" (Screen Media Films)

(2010, USA, 109 mins)

White Irish Drinkers unsurprisingly features white Irish drinkers, but far from being a “yob-culture” movie like “Green Street” as the title may suggest, this coming-of-age tale set against the backdrop of Brooklyn in 1975 delivers an emotionally charged message of youth and change.

Raised in an impoverished part of Brooklyn by Irish-American working-class parents, Brian (Nick Thurston) finds himself thrown into petty crime with his older brother Danny (Geoff Wigdor) but unlike Danny, Brian finds it difficult to justify the crimes. As he interprets his surroundings through his drawings, Brian finds himself at a crossroads as his friends begin to take different paths into the rest of their lives and Danny comes closer and closer to getting into serious trouble.

A tale of two brothers coming of age is hardly new, but the relationship between Danny and Brian is so convincingly portrayed that it’s hard to not believe they’re actually related. For one, the majority of their relationship is conveyed not through words, but through their actions, with subtleties that can usually only come with sibling familiarity.  

“When I was spending time with Geoff [Wigdor], I was trying to adopt that younger brother role and allow him to take on the older brother role, in the same way that relationship was in the film with Danny showing Brian the ropes,” said Thurston.

With stunning performances from veterans Stephen Lang (“Avatar”), Karen Allen (“Indiana Jones 4”) and Peter Riegert (“Traffic”), it seems easy for the younger cast to be overshadowed, but Wigdor, Leslie Murphy and Thurston all hold their own. Wigdor’s troubled portrayal of Danny is mysterious and alluring, while Murphy’s Shauna is charming, if not a little precocious at times.

“It was like being in a workshop with master craftsmen,” said Thurston of his experience with Lang, Riegert and Allen. “They allowed us to be there, and they allowed us in. If I went to Stephen with a question, he was always ready to talk to me.”

The star of this film is undoubtedly Nick Thurston, who portrays the character of Brian with intricate nuances in his expressions and his piercing blue-eyed stares. Whether it is his relationship with Danny, or with travel agent Shauna or his friends or his parents, Thurston brings an innocent charm and endearing naivety to his character. 

Hailing from the sunny Bay Area, it is easy to understand why 23-year-old Thurston may have had some difficulty in connecting to the character of 18-year-old Brian in Brooklyn in 1975.

“[Brian’s] fear of his surroundings and his inability to cope with them in the same way as his brother is able to, and for better or for worse, his father is able to, I identified pretty strongly with the way that Brian has a lot of difficulty in dealing with that,” said Thurston. “That was very painful to access as it was something that wasn’t all that easy for me.”

A recent graduate of USC, Thurston found the experience of acting in Shakespeare plays on stage at the British American Drama Academy in London to have helped him humble himself in the world of acting. 

“I learned some very important lessons,” said Thurston, who even now, seems still in awe of being able to play a role in Shakespeare on stage in London. 

“I had a cocky attitude about how to do my work, and that my work was the most important part of it and it didn’t matter how I worked with anybody else, but they really slammed it into me about how important it was to be part of a community, a team on stage.”

The experience taught him well. Cocky is the last thing that comes to mind from Thurston’s performance in “White Irish Drinkers.” Critics of the film are already hailing Thurston as one to watch, and with some exciting projects including a revival of Shakespeare [specifics of which Thurston was unable to reveal at this time], it appears that he is already making waves in Hollywood. 

Verdict: Go see this film, and not just for the naked dash through a cemetery in daylight or for the scintillating sex scene – the performances are outstanding and the story of Danny and Brian is heart wrenching.

Reach Senior Entertainment Editor Piya Sinha-Roy here, and follow her on Twitter @PiyaSRoy.