Sat, 12 Oct, 2024 | Declan Burke

KING FRANKIE

Verdict: 4/5

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. King Frankie (15A) stars Peter Coonan as Frankie, a taxi-driver in a small Irish town who manages a modest fleet of cabs but has ambitions to expand the business and establish a legacy for his children. 

Which would be no small feat, given that Frankie is slowly crawling back from a devastating bankruptcy.

First, however, Frankie needs to bury his father, Aidan (Owen Roe), whose sage counsel Frankie ignored a decade previously when Frankie was riding high, flashing the cash and juggling a host of impossible debts as he tried to persuade big spenders to invest in the property development scheme he’d hatched with his best friend Peter (Alan Mahon).

Debutant writer-director Dermot Malone splits his drama into two distinct parts: the day of Aidan’s removal, and a day 10 years previously when Frankie hosted a lavish birthday party for his young daughter, spending funds he didn’t have to impress potential investors.