Review of Small Engine Repair

The best part of this film was the scene behind the credits of a logging machine at work. It was a caterpillar with a long flexible boom. The gubbins at the business end would grab a tree and a chain saw would cut through the trunk near the ground. The gubbins would then rotate the tree to the horizontal, then rollers would draw the trunk through cutters to remove branches. The trunk would also be cut to the required length then the logs would be loaded onto a trailer. All highly efficient, and slightly disturbing.

Near a timber works on the outskirts of a small town, is an engine repair shop, run by boss and a young assistant. Everybody meets in a C&W bar in town where an irresolute friend of the boss is summoning courage to perform his own songs. A friend, recently released from a year in gaol for killing a child in a road accident, then leaving the scene, arrives. They are old friends but old tensions surface amongst this somewhat dysfunctional group. The characters develop sympathetically (even though they are Irish), the strains and tensions of the relationships, including with the women on the sidelines of the group, are effectively played out, and nothing really serious happens. In the end the singer gets discovered, and the young assistant leaves to seek his fortune elsewhere.