A major disappointment

Rating: 2/10 (20 June 2006)

Being a fan of Loach's work, I was expecting to be gripped and blown away by this film. Sadly I was not. I was actually rather bored.
The chief problem with this film for me was the script - it felt like one long political and ideological lecture rather than the telling of an incredible story in the history of Ireland. It vacillates between a howling rage or an earnest debate, with no dramatic tension to make it work as a piece of cinema. The narrative flow and pace is absolutely all over the place, with a stop start momentum that makes the film incredibly hard to settle into.
Loach's trademark gallows humour is sadly lacking, and there is next to no character development, so it was very hard to care for the protagonists. The British soldiers were one dimensional cardboard cut outs and more pantomime villains than vicious oppressors.
Cillian Murphy is excellent, but I felt that Orlagh Fitzgerald's performance was all 'one- note', and Padraic Delaney as Teddy lacked the charisma and gravitas for someone who is supposed to be an inspirational leader.
Despite my criticism of the film I want to point out that I don't subscribe to the notion that this film is anti-British. The atrocities committed by the British government are well documented. We can't pretend that it didn't happen. This is just a very flawed depiction.