Enjoyed this film!

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 2008)

This was an enjoyable film; funny, well acted and entertaining. I thought Colin Farrel delivered his best performance in a long time, but perhaps this is because he was playing himself in real life! Fiennes was solid but not spectacular, though the cold, menacing look from his eyes is fantastically creepy. It is prob. for this reason he makes such a great villain in the Harry Potter series. For me though, Brendan Gleeson stole the show - very convincing and believable performance as the Gangster with a heart of Gold. Great juxtaposition for a Character and Gleeson excellently pulls it off.
Great writing/funny lines from Writer/Director Martin M. I think there are many of us who could identify with the bored tourist in Europe who is dragged kicking and screaming to yet another cultural exhibit. I worried the film may have suffered somewhat of an identity crisis, trying to be a comedy and drama at the same time. I think the film ultimately succeeds, but there were times where I felt the narrative and energy waned.
This was particularly the case with Midget/Dwarf scenes; sure a few wise cracks about Midgets (Done many times before, and I must admit this falls into the category of bottom barrel comedy) and the pace of the film would not have suffered. What distracted me and I felt entirely irrelevant to the film was listening to the racist, drunken banter spoken by the Dwarf. This scene was awkward and seemed thrown in.
I recognize one intent of the scene was to show how Farrel, tormented by past actions, turns down what would typically be a great hedonistic evening for his character. However, I critique the dialog and creative choices made for the Dwarf. Why attempt to be esoteric for the sake of being esoteric? It failed. This was a very weak point of the film; it distracted the audience. Strange given that MM was formerly a playwright.
Nonetheless, this film gets a 7/10 for me. No doubt there could have been more thought in making the supporting characters dynamic and interesting.