Joyriders (1989)

Mary (Patricia Kerrigan) is a battered wife with two small children, living in a grim section of Dublin. Unable to stand the abuse any longer, she runs away from home, leaving her kids behind. Without money or a place to stay, she's befriended by a somewhat shady character named Perky (Andrew Connolly). He steals a car, and together they go to the coastal town where she'd honeymooned years earlier. Mary and Perky argue constantly, and since she's determined to never let a man abuse her again, she leaves him and gets a job at a dance hall. At the dance hall she encounters a singer (Billie Whitelaw) who she'd idolized as a child. The singer is now a pathetic alcoholic, so another one of Mary's illusions is shattered. On top of that, the dance-hall manager is making unwanted sexual advances to her. Perky returns to rescue her, and they briefly find happiness on a farm owned by a wryly philosophical old widower David Kellly. The film ends on a somewhat upbeat note, as they rescue one of Mary's daughters from a Dublin orphanage, but we're left in doubt as to whether Mary and Perky have a future together. Joyriders was the first effort by female director Aisling Walsh. It was financed by the Irish Film Board. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi