Intermission (DVD) > Reviews (5)

I went along to see this film knowing absolutely nothing about it, having been sent some free preview tickets. When the opening titles came up I realised that it was a film I'd seen billed as starring Colin "Flavour of the Month" Farrell who I'd much admired this year in "Phone Booth" and "The Recruit".

However, Farrell is not the only star of this movie and the intertwined plots and sub-plots allow every actor to shine within his or her own tale.

The film is set in an average town in Eire and the central plot is the age-old classic of a heist gone-wrong. The sub-plots stem from this and illustrate the relationships between the protagonists. In a series of quirky events, the characters become ever further intertwined but the cleverness of the writing ensures that these events are always credible and never seem like just a convenient way of tying up lose ends.

It's hard to review this movie without giving too much away but it is true to say that this film has elements of suspense, romance and hysterically good black comedy as well as superb acting.

In short, Deirda (McDonald) dumps her supermarket employee boyfriend (Cillian Murphy) for the security and maturity of a bank manager ,who leaves his wife to live with Deidra.

Farrell is planning a bank robbery but needs some help and this is where the plots begin to tangle. You can probably work it out...

Farrell doesn't have too much to do but, as the local toe-rag ,he puts in an impressive performance - obnoxious, unpleasant but at the same time palying for comedy in a subtle way which surprised me, it seems that Farrell may not be a one role actor after all.

Colm Mearney shines as a maverick cop who fancies himself as a film star when a novice film-maker, striving to carve himself out a career within a small company with no drive, aprroaches him to be shadowed for a ground-breaking documentary about the seedy underbelly of life. Mearney is fantastic and has created a character who will in time become a cult hero and his love of Celtic-influenced music (especially Clannad) will be much quoted by students!

Kelly McDonald and Shirley Henderson make a convincing pair of sisters although the former does not make the same kind of impression she did in Trainspotting. Shirley Henderson, however, is wonderful and even bears the indignity of sporting a fine portion of facial hair to create one of the year's most memorable film characters.

I thought Cillian Murphy's performance as the film's central character was rather weak but then the part is perhaps overshadowed by the strength of the others.

This is a great movie - if you've seen and enjoyed "Sexy Beast" you'll love this although "InterMission" has more comedy moments and perhaps is reminiscent of "The Commitments "or "The Van" in this respect.

This is the directorial debut of John Crowley and is a fine start. I look forward to more work from him.