A good movie

Well, it’s another movie I wanted to see for many years. Indeed, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from it but, since it was directed by Jim Sheridan, I was really eager to check it out. This one was a rather obscure movie he made in the middle of his trilogy with the great Daniel Day-Lewis (‘My Left Foot’, ‘In the Name of the Father’, ‘The Boxer’). While watching this movie, I was thinking about Ireland dark and dramatic history but, nowadays, it is probably considered as one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. My other thought was that it was pretty funny to see some younger versions of Boromir and Dumbledore in the same movie. Anyway, even though this movie seems to be rather forgotten nowadays, I thought it was actually pretty good though. Eventually, I was above all impressed by Richard Harris who actually made a come-back thanks to this movie. Indeed, Harris was pitch-perfect and managed to deliver here such a complex and charismatic character. Following the hardship in Ireland in general but also for him in particular, it seemed understandable that he would care so much for this damned field. But, on the other hand, should it really be the most important thing in his life though? However, it’s easy to judge when you always had a rather comfortable life, at least, with this field, he had something to fight for, something to be proud of. Indeed, what else did he have? To be honest, the rest of the movie did feel a little bit dry though, especially with a running time of almost 2 hrs, and I don’t think it really had much else to offer after all. I mean, John Hurt was also a fine actor and he was not bad here but his character was just too one-note. Concerning Sean Bean, it was pretty cool to see him more or less at the beginning of his career and it was interesting to see him play something else than his usual strong masculine characters. However, in his case, his character was stunted for too long and he started to emerge from his stupor just too late to really make an impression. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a solid gloomy drama and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Jim Sheridan’s work.