Product: Troubles
Rating: 1.0
Troubles
One star is too high to rate this film. I'd give it zero stars. This is a very slow moving, boring, turgid film. The setting is during the 1920's in a dilapidated old hotel, far past it's prime. Several scenes are truly repulsive - many rooms of the hotel are full of swarms of wild cats, there are rotting body parts full of maggots found in the hotel rooms and the permanent residents of the hotel are comprised of a band of domineering, bossy old biddies. The other hotel residents are in wheelchairs, invalids and pensioners. The Palm Court of the hotel was supposed to be a garden patio bar - but instead is overgrown with wild weeds and overgrown shrubbery.The film is very depressing and has a decayed creepy feeling. The star of the film is a WWI veteran who very poorly acts out the symptoms of battle fatigue/shell shock by squinting every few minutes in a nervous tick. His drippy fiance dies and then he takes up in a very odd, lukewarm courtship with an equally drippy local Irish woman. The plot moves so slowly it is like watching paint dry. I am a big fan of British films and "art house" cinema, Merchant/Ivory films - but this is a stinker.The DVD cover falsely advertises Sean Bean in a starring role. He isn't even a co-star, Sean Bean a teensy, tiny role and his first scene isn't even until 90 minutes into the movie. Sean Bean gives a very strong performance as an arrogant yet sexy, British military captain enforcing British colonialism which oppresseses Irish independence/Home Rule. The troop of soldiers he commands are supposed to bring stability, law and order to Dublin, but they wind up exacerbating the situation. In an unsympathetic role, cast as a villian - Sean Bean manages to give a bravura performance in a very bad film. But his part is so small it cannot save this film.Unless you are a very hard core, fanatic fan of his work, this DVD isn't worth buying. For Sean Bean fans it might barely be worth watching for the "Curiousity Factor" simply to see him when he was an unknown actor at the very height of his early youth before he become an internationally known Hollywood, bankable star.For your money's worth - you are better off watching Sean Bean in the "Richard Sharpe" series, "Clarissa", "Extremely Dangerous" "Lord of the Rings" "Bravo Two Zero", "Golden Eye" even "Essex Boys", which I didn't like because of horrendous, gruesome violence is a better chance to see Sean Bean at his best.The studio/distributors of this film should be forced to change the packaging on the cover of the film. It is false advertising and they are just unethically cashing in on Sean Bean's international star status to sell a very poor film in which he has a teensy, weensy, tiny role.