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Ups and Downs


            The series focuses on the lives and loves, and the often times intense interpersonal relationships of a young group living and working in Dublin. This time around, instead of trailing a member of the celebrity chef contingent, the show follows behind-the-kitchen-door drama amongst the staff of an up and coming culinary hotspot in Dublin. Filled with sharp wit, flaming romances and a biting look at life through the eyes of those for whom in the culinary world, a single ingredient changes everything.
    


            The film opens with a family with two children, Helen and Declan, playing on the beach of County Wexford, Ireland. Their parents explain to them about the lightship out at sea, and take a photo of the two happy children. Many years later, Helen () is married with two children, and she sees her husband and sons off for a holiday in Donegal before leaving for school, where she works as a principal. She is visited at work by a man, Paul (), who explains that he is a friend of Declan's and that he is in the hospital and wishes to see her as soon as possible. On the way there, Paul explains to a shocked Helen that Declan has been living with AIDS for two years and has been too afraid to tell her.At the hospital, Helen greets her brother (), and he requests to see their mother, Lily (), and asks Helen to be the one to tell her about his illness, which troubles Helen, as she has been estranged from her for some time. He also requests that she visit and inform their grandmother, Dora (), who is "a real paint-remover." Helen drives out to the village of Blackwater and breaks the news to her grandmother, who accepts it calmly. Dora tells Helen that Lily has been trying to persuade her to move out of the small village and has given her a mobile phone, but she stubbornly refuses both. Helen stays in Dora's house overnight and remembers back to when she and Declan were children and were left to live in the home with their grandparents for an extended period of time while their father went to Dublin for tests. Declan had difficulty adjusting to the change, but Helen assured him that their parents would come back for them soon and that life would return to normal, although this soon proved untrue.The next day, Helen journeys to her mother's job, and Lily greets her coldly. Helen tells her that Declan is ill and drives her to Dublin. After some awkward conversation regarding their estrangement, Helen hesitantly explains that her brother has AIDS and that he was hoping the family could put aside their differences and come together. At the hospital, Lily confirms her suspicions that her son is gay, and regards Paul frostily when she enters Declan's hospital room. However, she is warm towards her son and offers to take him to her home, but he surprises both Lily and Helen by saying he would rather go to Dora's home in Blackwater. The family drives there the following day, and Dora, though misunderstanding at first, genially accepts them all into her home. Lily seems uncomfortable, and when Helen admits that she knew about her brother's sexuality for many years and didn't tell her, the two exchange harsh words. Helen accompanies her mother to her fancy house for the first time to get linens, and she sees the photo from that day at the beach when she was a child, when the family had happier times.The following day, Declan's friend Larry () turns up at Dora's house to help care for him. Lily seems displeased, but Dora allows him to stay, and he and Helen bond as they help Declan. Dora bluntly asks Helen if Larry and Declan are in a relationship, and when she says no, Dora seems saddened that Declan has no one of his own. Soon Paul arrives as well, and Dora frets over the sudden influx of visitors. Her nosy neighbors stop by and inquire about all the newcomers and about Lily and Helen's lives until Dora finally shoos them away. Later, at dinner, Dora makes her dubious feelings about homosexuality plain, but says that nothing shocks her anymore, and when Lily expresses consternation that Declan's friends are staying in the house as well, Dora insists that they are good company.Larry and Dora get friendlier as he offers to help her remodel her home. Lily still seems distant and unhappy with the situation, and Helen explains to Larry and Paul how she felt smothered and restricted by her family as a young woman and finally broke away from them, moving away and not inviting them to her wedding. She flashes back to her childhood, when her father died of cancer and she and Declan were kept away from the funeral and sent to live with strangers while Dora went to Lily. Separated from her brother, young Helen snuck back into her home and mourned her father alone, feeling abandoned and ignored.Back in the present, Helen, Larry and Paul share a lighthearted moment down on the beach and talk about their respective families. Lily arranges to take time off of work and commits to caring for Declan full-time, and she and Helen have a brief, kind moment together when they reminisce about the lightship and about Helen's father. Helen remembers the day when, after her father's death, Lily took a dip in the ocean for the first time in the children's memory. Later, when she helps an ailing Declan in the middle of the night, she asks if he remembers that day, and he suggests it was her way of moving on, as all people must do eventually.In the morning, an anxious Helen calls her husband on the phone, who reassures her that their children are fine and that shes doing the right thing. When she returns to the home, she finds that Declan has taken a turn for the worse, losing sight in one eye, but he brushes it off as "not the end of the world." Lily muses that Declan was always emotionally engaging and Helen always uncaring, which leads to an argument between mother and daughter, ending with Helen finally demanding how she could have abandoned her and Declan in Blackwater while their father was dying. Declan pleads with Helen to make up with her mother, as there are "no winners in this situation."Later, as Declan grows sicker, Lily grows resentful of his friends' involvement, and Paul argues that his friends were there for him when his family was not, and that he didn't tell them he was sick because he was afraid of their disapproval. Realizing that her children really have been feeling abandoned, Lily finally explains to Declan and Helen that she wrote them letters while their father was sick and wanted to visit them, but Dora prevented it and Lily couldn't leave her husband's side. Helen tells them how she felt forgotten, and Dora and Lily explain that they both just wanted to protect the children from the trauma of the death and the funeral out of love for them.Larry and Dora continue to bond as he teaches her how to drive and takes measurements for her renovations, and Helen and Lily continue to repair their relationship when they finally discuss her father's death and Lily explains that she stayed with him until the very end. It soon becomes clear that Declan needs to return to the hospital, and Helen and Lily escort him back to Dublin, soothing him with a song from his childhood. Helen gives him a shell from the beach that they loved as kids, and they promise to remain by his side. Lily visits Helen's home for the first time and compliments it, expressing a desire to be a bigger part of her life from now on. She gives her the old photograph from their day at the beach, and Helen comforts her as she breaks down in tears.
    

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