The British view of the Emerald Isle – as least that which has filtered through the various films, ads and sitcoms that have crossed the Irish Sea – is arguably a little out of touch.

On screen it’s a land of folksy pub types and fresh-faced lovelies dunking their raven tresses in mountainside streams. The reality is somewhat different.

And with a movie industry as keen to perpetrate the myths as the stout and cider brigade, the question is whether The Tiger’s Tail brings anything new to the table.

In terms of out-and-out plot, the answer is a resolute "no". But while everyone from Shakespeare to Lindsay Lohan has had a stab at the old body-swap switcheroo, the matching of a literary and cinematic standard with contemporary fears of identity theft gives the characters room to breathe.

Add to this Brendan Gleeson in a pair of effectively dissonant roles as both Liam and his unnamed "double", and the whole package manages to remain entertaining without ever approaching anything memorable.

Renowned British director John 'Deliverance' Boorman – here in his fourth collaboration with Gleeson – clearly has some concerns about the state of his adopted homeland.

As our protagonist slips further into the underbelly of Irish society, so the audience too discovers the shadow cast by the Celtic Tiger – the 90s fiscal boom inferred by the film’s title.

From revelations of wrenching family secrets to drunken shenanigans among the hen parties of Temple Bar, Boorman is unflinching in his portrayal of contemporary Ireland as it drags itself kicking and screaming through economic, political and social upheaval.

It is these dramatic aspects – rather than the more hackneyed Prince and the Pauper storyline – that The Tiger’s Tale is at its most enjoyable.

Ironically the elements of the film that really chime are those that caused the Irish media to bring out the big guns in their condemnation of it – with a few column inches presumably kept aside for discussion of crimes against accents.

More "Face/Off-lite" than "Hitchcock-lite", The Tiger’s Tail does have interesting things to say about a 21st century Ireland struggling to reconcile its past with its future. We're just not sure about the vehicle in which they're delivered.

Tim Postins