Starring Cillian Murphy and Padriac Delaney
I find it a little difficult to say how I feel about this movie. On the one hand, I liked it. On the other, I guess I think it would have done better as a mini series.
It was really difficult to see the kind of persecution and mistreatment that occurred throughout the movie. It’s the kind of thing that seems so barbaric that you’d think “No way did that happen in the last hundred years!” Early on in the movie, a young boy is brutally murdered and it’s the sort of thing I would have expected to see in a movie taking place 200 years before this.
The entire movie is a heart wrenching struggle between the British and the Irish, and then among the Irish themselves. They fight so hard and then have this debate about whether or not they should continue fighting after the British government offers a treaty, and I found myself in the middle of the fence on which way they should go. Obviously true and total freedom would be wonderful and ideal, but I think I would be so tired after the constant struggles, I’m not sure what I would choose.
The differences between Damien (Cillian Murphy) and Teddy (Padriac Delaney), and the subsequent paths they both take, are really hard to watch. It’s awful to see families torn apart like they were, and their reasons are probably similar to my own inability to decide which way I would go with the conflict.
My biggest complaint with the movie was that the passage of time was really difficult to grasp…I got the impression later on that at least months, if not years, had gone by during the course of the movie, but I didn’t know it until I saw the noticeable growth of one characters hair.
The reason I would maybe have liked to see this as a mini series is because the character development, and the timeline, would have been handled better. Perhaps more background info was needed, or maybe just more along the way, but I would have loved to see more about what caused the rift between Damien and Teddy. I also would have liked more insight into the relationship between Damien and Sinead, as I didn’t really see any real romantic connection between the two and then suddenly they were together. As it stands, the movie felt a little slow, so more time but broken up would have been better for me.
On the whole, I say see this movie. It seems like a good insight into the struggles of the Irish people during this time frame.
My Rating: 3.5/5
