Red Roses and Petrol (Film)

Red Roses and Petrol
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tamar Simon Hoffs
Produced by	Georganne Aldrich Heller Tamar Simon Hoffs Alfred Sapse Gail Stayden
Written by	Tamar Simon Hoffs Joseph O'Connor
Starring	Malcolm McDowell Max Beesley Susan Lynch
Music by	Seth Podowitz Flogging Molly Susanna Hoffs
Cinematography	Nancy Schreiber
Edited by	Daithí Keane
Distributed by	World Wide Motion Pictures Corp.
Release date	2003
Country	United States
Language	English

Red Roses and Petrol is a 2003 drama film based on the stage play of the same name by Joseph O'Connor. The film was directed by Tamar Simon Hoffs, and stars Malcolm McDowell and Max Beesley. It was released in 2008.

Amid a haze of cigarette smoke and uneaten food, the family of Enda Doyle (Malcolm McDowell) gathers in Dublin for his wake. A university librarian, poet, and complicated man, he has left behind a trail of unresolved issues, a dysfunctional family, and a disturbing mystery. Red Roses and Petrol, a darkly comic feature film by director Tamar Simon Hoffs, explores the emotional twists and turns of familial relationships.

Enda’s dazed widow, Moya (Olivia Tracey), anxiously prepares for the next day’s funeral with her still stuck-at-home, twenty-something daughter Medbh (Maeve) (Heather Juergensen), lending a loving hand. Moya’s desperation to keep her family together and Medbh’s sharp tongue provide the backdrop for the arrival from New York of headstrong older sister Catherine (Susan Lynch), with her handsome but awkward boyfriend Tom (Greg Ellis) in tow. They doubt that London-based Johnny (Max Beesley), the angry black sheep brother of the family, will appear at all. Sorting through boxes of Enda’s books, the women discover a cache of self-recorded video diaries that might shed light on who Enda Doyle really was, and some of the secrets of his life that he was never able to share with them.

At the funeral, the daughters see a distraught young woman from the university, Helen (Catherine Farrell), rumored to be having an affair with Enda. They’re stunned that she would show up so brazenly at a family gathering for the deceased Enda. Returning home, they find Johnny emerging half-naked from the shower, after a quick tryst with a stewardess he met on his flight from London. A brilliant, wounded slacker, Johnny manages to irritate everyone to the edge of violence with his biting and sarcastic recall of the family’s long buried memories. Johnny’s confrontational behavior and bitter assessment of life with father, incite the clan into what can only be called unchecked family therapy.