Argh! It's been a busy week so we'll try to get this one out of the way fairly quick. No need to go on tangents about community ensemble pictures which will eventually lead to 500 words about how much I couldn't stand Magnolia since it was a blatant rip-off of Short Cuts. At least Pulp Fiction had the common courtesy to rip-off several different films at the same time. I'd say something disparaging and libelous about Two Days In the Valley but dear lord I have never had the resolve to actually watch more than 10 minutes of it at a time.
But I seem to be getting away from what we really need to talk about. And that is the Irish film Intermission. I figured I'd record it since I am going to Dublin soon and this film takes place there. Yes, I was looking for lots of scenery which this film doesn't really deliver. It could have been filmed in Dublin, Ohio from what I could tell.
And that's not to say that it was a bad film. It was quite good but tended to ladle on extra servings of the Quirky Sauce. The thing about having quirky characters is that you need some non-quirky ones to set the balance, otherwise it just looks like you're trying too hard.
I'll try to not go overboard on plot description like I did in the previous review and god help me if I tried to explain every connection between characters in this one. Basically you have your genre of Community of People's Lives Intersect In Many Ways, Most Hinging On Them Falling In Love (or CPLIIMWMHOTFIL) that we've seen done by a few UK filmmakers. Intermission's twist is that a bunch of characters hook up or break up and then a crime plot happens too. So it's like Love Actually meets Pulp Fiction (not a bad thing) and who knows, it may have been pitched just like that.
We get to meet plenty of quirky Irish folk like a wheelchair-bound drunk from the pub, a grocery store manager who likes to use cliched phrases "As they say in The States", Shirley Henderson has a feminine mustache, Colm Meaney as a surly cop, and Colin Farrel as a chavy thief. Oh yeah, and Cillian Murphy (instant approval to watch by my wife Jean) and Kelly Macdonald (instant approval to watch by me) as a couple that the plot hinges on.
So it breaks down like this. John (Cillian Murphy) and Deidre (Kelly Macdonald) break up because John is a lowly grovery store clerk who has no ambition aside from stealing cases of brown sauce with his mate Oscar. So Deidre hooks up with an older man, a married banker. The banker's wife miraculously hooks up with Oscar who's really got eyes for Deidre's sister Sally (Shirley Henderson) who is so depressed about life that she refuses to take care of her mustache.
Meanwhile, copper Gerry Lynch (Colm Meaney) is out to bust chav ne'er do well Lehiff (Colin Farrel playing it with a giant band-aid on his neck the whole film) and goes as far as accosting Lehiff in the bathroom of a pub and pissing on his shoes.
Wackiness ensues and in a plot to win back Deidre, John and his friend Mick join up with Lehiff to concot a plot where they'll kidnap Deidre so the banker will have to pay ransom to get her back. Of course nothing works as it should and plot points work themselves out and everyone lives happily ever after. Except Lehiff since he's a scoundrel.
I hope this doesn't read like a hatchet job since I really enjoyed this film. It was visually interesting and it balanced the comedy, drama, and violence well. No small feat. Some films try to do it and the differing tones just jar, but here the director and director of photography keep things tight.
I'd say the only thing that stretched the believability quotient is that Deidre and John hook back up at the end. After he had been directly involved in her kidnapping.
And for all the Look At How Quirky We're Being moments, there are also some subtly played twists that more than make up for it. The opening scene with Lehiff is brilliant. The shoe pissing scene is pretty nuts. I feel dirty just talking about it. So lets move on...
In the final analysis, it's a good film and even Jean wanted to watch it. Which is saying something since I am the frequent offender of recording esoteric programs on the DVR and not watching them in a timely manner.
But I seem to be getting away from what we really need to talk about. And that is the Irish film Intermission. I figured I'd record it since I am going to Dublin soon and this film takes place there. Yes, I was looking for lots of scenery which this film doesn't really deliver. It could have been filmed in Dublin, Ohio from what I could tell.
And that's not to say that it was a bad film. It was quite good but tended to ladle on extra servings of the Quirky Sauce. The thing about having quirky characters is that you need some non-quirky ones to set the balance, otherwise it just looks like you're trying too hard.
I'll try to not go overboard on plot description like I did in the previous review and god help me if I tried to explain every connection between characters in this one. Basically you have your genre of Community of People's Lives Intersect In Many Ways, Most Hinging On Them Falling In Love (or CPLIIMWMHOTFIL) that we've seen done by a few UK filmmakers. Intermission's twist is that a bunch of characters hook up or break up and then a crime plot happens too. So it's like Love Actually meets Pulp Fiction (not a bad thing) and who knows, it may have been pitched just like that.
We get to meet plenty of quirky Irish folk like a wheelchair-bound drunk from the pub, a grocery store manager who likes to use cliched phrases "As they say in The States", Shirley Henderson has a feminine mustache, Colm Meaney as a surly cop, and Colin Farrel as a chavy thief. Oh yeah, and Cillian Murphy (instant approval to watch by my wife Jean) and Kelly Macdonald (instant approval to watch by me) as a couple that the plot hinges on.
So it breaks down like this. John (Cillian Murphy) and Deidre (Kelly Macdonald) break up because John is a lowly grovery store clerk who has no ambition aside from stealing cases of brown sauce with his mate Oscar. So Deidre hooks up with an older man, a married banker. The banker's wife miraculously hooks up with Oscar who's really got eyes for Deidre's sister Sally (Shirley Henderson) who is so depressed about life that she refuses to take care of her mustache.
Meanwhile, copper Gerry Lynch (Colm Meaney) is out to bust chav ne'er do well Lehiff (Colin Farrel playing it with a giant band-aid on his neck the whole film) and goes as far as accosting Lehiff in the bathroom of a pub and pissing on his shoes.
Wackiness ensues and in a plot to win back Deidre, John and his friend Mick join up with Lehiff to concot a plot where they'll kidnap Deidre so the banker will have to pay ransom to get her back. Of course nothing works as it should and plot points work themselves out and everyone lives happily ever after. Except Lehiff since he's a scoundrel.
I hope this doesn't read like a hatchet job since I really enjoyed this film. It was visually interesting and it balanced the comedy, drama, and violence well. No small feat. Some films try to do it and the differing tones just jar, but here the director and director of photography keep things tight.
I'd say the only thing that stretched the believability quotient is that Deidre and John hook back up at the end. After he had been directly involved in her kidnapping.
And for all the Look At How Quirky We're Being moments, there are also some subtly played twists that more than make up for it. The opening scene with Lehiff is brilliant. The shoe pissing scene is pretty nuts. I feel dirty just talking about it. So lets move on...
In the final analysis, it's a good film and even Jean wanted to watch it. Which is saying something since I am the frequent offender of recording esoteric programs on the DVR and not watching them in a timely manner.
No comments:
Post a Comment