Common 2014

Johnjo O’Shea is an ordinary 17-year-old except that he is a haemophiliac. He is asked to give a few friends of his older brother a lift in his brother’s car so that they can visit a pizza takeaway.

Johnjo is unaware that one of his passengers has been tipped off by a friend who runs that shift at the pizza place that an adversary is about to enter and that the real reason for wanting a lift is to get there quickly to confront him. One of the other boys starts an argument with a bystander (Tommy Ward) and stabs him fatally. The drama then follows the police and legal procedures as well as the conflicts between family members, the boys involved and the community. Although he and his family consider him to be an innocent bystander, he ends up in court charged as an accessory to murder, under the doctrine of common purpose (the “common” of the film’s title), which may also make reference to the view that segments of society might take of the working-class youths involved.

The end shows Johnjo’s mother and Margaret Ward, the mother of the murdered boy, talking in the street. The latter shows the former a letter that she received from Johnjo that apologises for what happened and accepts a degree of culpability because even though he had not taken part, the fact that he was born allowed it to happen. Both mothers see the truth in Johnjo’s innocence, the flawed decency in his view on culpability and the tragedy that both will be deprived of innocent sons although only one permanently. They embrace before Margaret Ward turns and walks away.