Fantastic film that grabs you immediately and never lets go.

Rating: 9/10 (30 July 2010)

Jim Sheridan's IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER tells the story about the Guildford Four, framed Irish people that were sentenced for life for being IRA terrorists bombing a pub in 1974. Gerry Conlon, accused for being the leader, an innocent, angry young man becomes roommates with his own dad (who got sentenced as an accomplice), and a heartsick relationship evolves behind the bars. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Gerry, and Pete Postlethwaite his father Giuseppe Conlon, and both do extraordinary performances in capturing the relation between the two; the no-good petty thief Gerry sees everything he's demonstrating against in his father, a straightforward and careful elderly man who Gerry insists needs to start fighting back for all the unrighteousness in the world. The film is just as much about this father & son relationship as it is about the political war fought in Ireland, and it mixes those two ingredients masterfully and it makes for an engaging, provocative, tender and emotional experience in which we understand the many difficulties that faced the wrongfully accused convicts. The absolutely blistering Day-Lewis should have anchored the Best Actor statue for this, in which is possibly Sheridan's finest film.