Informative but weak

Rating: 4/10 (28 April 2007)

Alright, I readily agree that I'm not Irish, but I walked away from "The Wind That Shakes the Barley", with a new-found interest in the history of the IRA.
For that, I'm pretty grateful, because the movie is really effective at showing what it means to be committed to a cause for the long haul. The movie is set during a pivotal time, just before the Treaty of 1921, which forever divided not only geographical borders, but the border that runs between the hearts and souls of Irish and British alike.
Yet, something was missing...something so basic and simple. Yes, we saw the men training and fighting. And yes, we observed IRA members passionately discussing ideas and strategy. Let's not forget to mention we witnessed a lot of killing, too. But the movie as a whole left me emotionally unmoved. I can't say I became emotionally invested in any of the characters, perhaps because they were so sparsely drawn and so woodenly acted. How did this movie win a Sundance award?
Why did I have to plow through most of the movie to find out the title character was trained as a physician? Where was a bit of back story? Maybe a couple of scenes of non-combat interaction between the IRA soldiers and townspeople (the ones they were fighting for, remember?). The script relied on dialog to supply a few bits and pieces, but I felt as though the writer and director got together and said, "Look, let's just drop the audience right in the middle of this situation, and let them fend for themselves."
Perhaps this little film, showing a tiny slice of history, was meant to be just that. After all, it got me reading about Irish history, didn't it?