Martin McCann puts in a star turn as the U2 frontman in 'Killing Bono'. It's no surprise, writes DONALD CLARKE
The Irish Times
EVERY NOW and then the brave cinemagoer emerges from a film and, after chewing over the intricacies of the plot, remarks: "But hang on. Who was that guy?" A few years ago, when Richard Attenborough released Closing the Ring , a strange, era-jumping melodrama set in Belfast, the reviews were pretty iffy about the story, direction and production values. But who was that guy in the lead? He was unbelievable.
It was Martin McCann. A 28-year-old actor from the Divis Flats, McCann also excelled in the recent Swansong: Story of Occi Byrne . Now he has got the chance to play the father of the nation as a young man. Nick Hamm's Killing Bono , based on a memoir by the journalist Neil McCormick, features McCann as the titular rock bellower. It's another fine performance. When he appears in the mid-1980s garb - pilgrim hat and girl's hair - you feel tempted to laugh, but McCann makes a fleshy, likeable character of the former Mr Hewson.