""Ireland would be a lovely place. If it wasn't for the Irish." So says an uppity old wealthy white man, explaining why government corruption cannot be exposed during the lifetime of those committing the corruption. This film about conflicts between Parliament and the IRA was interesting but often far too talky and thus often though. Before she moved up to superstardom and started winning practically every award out there, Frances McDormand appeared in this political thriller where she is over in Ireland with her boyfriend on a case involving government brutality, only to deal with his brutal murder and her efforts to find out exactly who was responsible and bring them to justice. She finds she's up against something extremely powerful, and so for nearly two hours, the audience gets to see the barriers she hits and try to figure out which are agenda driven lies within the script or just follow the story as written and accept the fact that human corruption on both sides of the issue can never resolve the situation.
Having seen enough films on the conflict between Ireland and it's mother country that rules the roost set in different eras, I still cannot proclaim myself an expert on this subject. Each film has its own point of view and obviously it's own agenda. As a film, there are many interesting moments but then again it drags whenever McDormand is not on screen. However, the scene with the old rich white man who makes that hysterical quote before being cursed at by the person he's talking to is quite revealing about how Ireland is viewed on by certain members of the British government. Not everybody obviously feels that way, but there are enough mentions of certain people who allegedly do including the Iron Lady herself. The intrusiveness of the press after McDormand's boyfriend was killed was another infuriating moment, but any opportunity to make insensitive tabloid journalism look bad and amoral is fine with me. I wasn't completely bored, enjoying the scenery, but I wish there was a lot more action and less chitchat about topics that can never be resolved as long as progress is rejected.
Having seen enough films on the conflict between Ireland and it's mother country that rules the roost set in different eras, I still cannot proclaim myself an expert on this subject. Each film has its own point of view and obviously it's own agenda. As a film, there are many interesting moments but then again it drags whenever McDormand is not on screen. However, the scene with the old rich white man who makes that hysterical quote before being cursed at by the person he's talking to is quite revealing about how Ireland is viewed on by certain members of the British government. Not everybody obviously feels that way, but there are enough mentions of certain people who allegedly do including the Iron Lady herself. The intrusiveness of the press after McDormand's boyfriend was killed was another infuriating moment, but any opportunity to make insensitive tabloid journalism look bad and amoral is fine with me. I wasn't completely bored, enjoying the scenery, but I wish there was a lot more action and less chitchat about topics that can never be resolved as long as progress is rejected.