disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (4 August 2006)

Maybe my expectations of this film were too high, but I was very disappointed in it. It was beautifully filmed, but far too simplistic and full of the clichés about Ireland that I would have expected to find in a Hollywood dollar churner but not in a film by this director.
I have no axe to grind in terms of the political message of the film, indeed I agree with it, but I think most people who see this film would not leave with any deeper understanding of the issues it attempts to address.
The socialist argument was particularly badly handled, with a monologue by the trade union character (otherwise excellently portrayed) that reminded me of dreary political consciousness raising afternoons in seventies student unions.
The plot started out promisingly but turned into a predictable potboiler long before an ending that should have moved me, but didn't.
It was also full of lazy mistakes in terms of the sets, grass growing right up to the door of the house in a supposedly inhabited farmyard, moss growing on the chimney wall of a stone cabin that would have had a permanently burning peat fire, all the clothes too new looking - small details, I know, but very jarring when they occur in such numbers.
I'm very sad to say I've been warning my friends off this film.