LONDON -- "When the Sky Falls" is based on the events leading up to the 1996 murder of crime journalist Veronica Guerin in Dublin, Ireland. As directed by John MacKenzie (who made the excellent British crime film "The Long Good Friday"), the film is stylish and gritty and features fine central performances. While it should win critical plaudits, "Sky", which at times feels a bit like a movie of the week, isn't likely to attract big audiences.
Screenwriters Michael Sheridan, Ronan Gallagher and Colum McCann have put together an intelligent, well-constructed and moving script. Before her death, Guerin collaborated with Sheridan on an early draft of a screenplay that focused on her crusade against Dublin gangsters and the various attacks against her.
The film tells the story of fictional Sunday Globe journalist Sinead Hamilton (wonderfully played by Joan Allen), whose writings about the Dublin gangs cause an increase in her newspaper's circulation along with the violent attention of the gangsters. Her investigations also bring her into close contact with the Irish Republican Army -- which denounces the gangs' drug dealing -- and the police, who struggle to stop the mobsters.
But her efforts push gang boss Dave Hackett (Gerard Flynn) to take the ultimate step. On her way home from a court appearance, she is shot dead. Ironically, her death finally forces attention to Ireland's criminal laws, so drug dealers can be identified and apprehended and their assets seized.
In this role, Allen is the personification of steely dignity, and she does a good job with a Dublin accent. She achieves a fine balance between crusading journalist and attentive mother.
Her performance is aided by Patrick Bergin's turn as grumpy maverick cop Sgt. Mackey, though he is lumbered with the cliched dim assistant in the form of Jason Barry's Dempsey. Bergin and Allen's scenes together work particularly well. And the ever-excellent Pete Postlethwaite makes a brief but fine appearance as crime boss Martin Shaughnessy, who is knocked off early in the film.
MacKenzie handles action sequences extremely well -- particularly a car chase through the city estates -- and pushes the story with skill and ease. Technical credits are all fine, especially Mark Geraghty's production design, and DP Seamus Deasy gives the film an atmospheric hue.
WHEN THE SKY FALLS
Sky Pictures
In association with Irish Screen, the Irish Film Board and Redeemable Features
Producers: Nigel Warren-Green,
Michael Wearing
Director: John MacKenzie
Executive producers: Kevin Menton,
Peter Newman, Marie Louise Queally
Screenwriters: Michael Sheridan,
Ronan Gallagher, Colum McCann
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Mark Geraghty
Music: Pol Brennan
Costume designer: Lorna Marie Mugan
Editor: Graham Walker
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sinead Hamilton: Joan Allen
Mackey: Patrick Bergin
Mickey O'Fagan: Jimmy Smallhorne
John "The Runner" Cosgrove: Liam Cunningham
Tom Hamilton: Kevin McNally
Martin Shaughnessy: Pete Postlethwaite
Dempsey: Jason Barry
Jimmy Keaveney: Des McAleer
Dave Hackett: Gerard Flynn
Running time - 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Screenwriters Michael Sheridan, Ronan Gallagher and Colum McCann have put together an intelligent, well-constructed and moving script. Before her death, Guerin collaborated with Sheridan on an early draft of a screenplay that focused on her crusade against Dublin gangsters and the various attacks against her.
The film tells the story of fictional Sunday Globe journalist Sinead Hamilton (wonderfully played by Joan Allen), whose writings about the Dublin gangs cause an increase in her newspaper's circulation along with the violent attention of the gangsters. Her investigations also bring her into close contact with the Irish Republican Army -- which denounces the gangs' drug dealing -- and the police, who struggle to stop the mobsters.
But her efforts push gang boss Dave Hackett (Gerard Flynn) to take the ultimate step. On her way home from a court appearance, she is shot dead. Ironically, her death finally forces attention to Ireland's criminal laws, so drug dealers can be identified and apprehended and their assets seized.
In this role, Allen is the personification of steely dignity, and she does a good job with a Dublin accent. She achieves a fine balance between crusading journalist and attentive mother.
Her performance is aided by Patrick Bergin's turn as grumpy maverick cop Sgt. Mackey, though he is lumbered with the cliched dim assistant in the form of Jason Barry's Dempsey. Bergin and Allen's scenes together work particularly well. And the ever-excellent Pete Postlethwaite makes a brief but fine appearance as crime boss Martin Shaughnessy, who is knocked off early in the film.
MacKenzie handles action sequences extremely well -- particularly a car chase through the city estates -- and pushes the story with skill and ease. Technical credits are all fine, especially Mark Geraghty's production design, and DP Seamus Deasy gives the film an atmospheric hue.
WHEN THE SKY FALLS
Sky Pictures
In association with Irish Screen, the Irish Film Board and Redeemable Features
Producers: Nigel Warren-Green,
Michael Wearing
Director: John MacKenzie
Executive producers: Kevin Menton,
Peter Newman, Marie Louise Queally
Screenwriters: Michael Sheridan,
Ronan Gallagher, Colum McCann
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Mark Geraghty
Music: Pol Brennan
Costume designer: Lorna Marie Mugan
Editor: Graham Walker
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sinead Hamilton: Joan Allen
Mackey: Patrick Bergin
Mickey O'Fagan: Jimmy Smallhorne
John "The Runner" Cosgrove: Liam Cunningham
Tom Hamilton: Kevin McNally
Martin Shaughnessy: Pete Postlethwaite
Dempsey: Jason Barry
Jimmy Keaveney: Des McAleer
Dave Hackett: Gerard Flynn
Running time - 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 7/20/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It's a daunting challenge for an actor to play a character who is considered to be a consummate salesman, the kind of guy who can sell you the shirt on your back and make you smile while he's doing it.
Stephen Rea, playing the title role of a small-time huckster, has that assignment in the new film by Irish director Gillies Mackinnon ("The Playboys", "Small Faces"), and he lives up to it beautifully. As his employer and ultimate nemesis, Richard Harris uses his distinctive voice and authority to equally good effect. Would that the film itself were so compelling.
Trojan Eddie (Rea) makes his living working for John Power (Harris), the leader of local travelers -- con men -- (their American cousins were recently depicted in the Bill Paxton starrer "Traveller"), and in his spare time he sells assorted goods, whatever he can get his hands on, from the back of his van. A lifelong loser, Eddie has been in jail for a botched robbery attempt, and his marriage is on the rocks -- although his ex-wife does show up periodically to crash on his couch. Struggling to raise his two young daughters alone, he takes his relationship with the loving Betty (Brid Brennan) for granted.
Eddie's real troubles begin when Power becomes obsessed with Kathleen (Aislin McGuckin), a much younger traveler, and asks her to marry him. She accepts, even though she is also secretly seeing Power's young nephew, Dermot (Stuart Townsend). Immediately after the wedding, the duplicitous pair skip out with the large cash dowry, and Power dispatches his thugs to track them down. Eddie becomes caught in the middle, torn between his fear of Power and his desire to partake in some of that dowry money.
There are inevitably violent and tragic results, but Eddie manages to have one last laugh at his former employer.
The very Irish-flavored screenplay by Billy Roche contains two memorable lead characters, but it is also diffuse and meandering, and the scenes never quite carry either the comic or dramatic intensity they should. The film seems to shift uncomfortably between violent melodrama and gentle humor, and the exceedingly mild results don't bode well for U.S. boxoffice, despite the presence of the two stars. Rea is at his charming, hangdog best here, though, and Harris, who has been on a cinematic roll in recent years, is equally fine.
TROJAN EDDIE
Castle Hill Prods.
Director Gillies Mackinnon
Producer Emma Burge
Co-producer Seamus Byrne
Screenplay Billy Roche
Executive producers Rod Stoneman,
Alan J. Wands, Kevin Menton, Nigel Warren Green
Director of photography John deBorman
Editor Scott Thomas
Music John Keane
Color/stereo
Cast:
Trojan Eddie Stephen Rea
John Power Richard Harris
Dermot Stuart Townsend
Kathleen Aislin McGuckin
Ginger Brendan Gleeson
Betty Brid Brennan
Raymie Sean McGinley
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Stephen Rea, playing the title role of a small-time huckster, has that assignment in the new film by Irish director Gillies Mackinnon ("The Playboys", "Small Faces"), and he lives up to it beautifully. As his employer and ultimate nemesis, Richard Harris uses his distinctive voice and authority to equally good effect. Would that the film itself were so compelling.
Trojan Eddie (Rea) makes his living working for John Power (Harris), the leader of local travelers -- con men -- (their American cousins were recently depicted in the Bill Paxton starrer "Traveller"), and in his spare time he sells assorted goods, whatever he can get his hands on, from the back of his van. A lifelong loser, Eddie has been in jail for a botched robbery attempt, and his marriage is on the rocks -- although his ex-wife does show up periodically to crash on his couch. Struggling to raise his two young daughters alone, he takes his relationship with the loving Betty (Brid Brennan) for granted.
Eddie's real troubles begin when Power becomes obsessed with Kathleen (Aislin McGuckin), a much younger traveler, and asks her to marry him. She accepts, even though she is also secretly seeing Power's young nephew, Dermot (Stuart Townsend). Immediately after the wedding, the duplicitous pair skip out with the large cash dowry, and Power dispatches his thugs to track them down. Eddie becomes caught in the middle, torn between his fear of Power and his desire to partake in some of that dowry money.
There are inevitably violent and tragic results, but Eddie manages to have one last laugh at his former employer.
The very Irish-flavored screenplay by Billy Roche contains two memorable lead characters, but it is also diffuse and meandering, and the scenes never quite carry either the comic or dramatic intensity they should. The film seems to shift uncomfortably between violent melodrama and gentle humor, and the exceedingly mild results don't bode well for U.S. boxoffice, despite the presence of the two stars. Rea is at his charming, hangdog best here, though, and Harris, who has been on a cinematic roll in recent years, is equally fine.
TROJAN EDDIE
Castle Hill Prods.
Director Gillies Mackinnon
Producer Emma Burge
Co-producer Seamus Byrne
Screenplay Billy Roche
Executive producers Rod Stoneman,
Alan J. Wands, Kevin Menton, Nigel Warren Green
Director of photography John deBorman
Editor Scott Thomas
Music John Keane
Color/stereo
Cast:
Trojan Eddie Stephen Rea
John Power Richard Harris
Dermot Stuart Townsend
Kathleen Aislin McGuckin
Ginger Brendan Gleeson
Betty Brid Brennan
Raymie Sean McGinley
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 8/28/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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