Director: Kenneth Branagh. Cast: Jude Hill, Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Ciarán Hinds. 97 min. Drama.
- The setting is the late 60's/early 70's sectarian violence of Northern Ireland, but the universal question the film asks is: when life gets too hard in your country, do you stay no matter what ... or leave?
- The movie earns high marks, especially due to lovable supporting characters in Judy Dench and Ciarán Hinds (Oscar winner this year?), and incredible black-and-white angles and framing - so good, the cinematography is in the foreground, almost to a fault, rather than in the background.
- Kenneth Branagh has had hits (Dead Again, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Murder on the Orient Express) and really bad misses (Thor, Artemis Fowl) throughout his career. This is one of his hits. He shows incredible respect for cinema and the performing arts, as amid all the black-and-white, his young protagonist watches movies in color at the local theater with wide-eyed wonder - a respect reminiscent of Cinema Paradiso.
- Having been through the migration experience, watching the movie, I remembered the immigration process was much more painful than the emigration, which for me was relatively a given: when you're leaving a home country, you know very well why you're leaving ... but you don't know what form of hell you're getting yourself into. So if you're watching this see to your own immigration hardships played out on screen, you may be slightly disappointed as I was - even if the movie splendidly elaborates on the pre-immigration uncertainties and insecurities.
- Heartbreaking:
- "Go. Go now. Don't look back. I love you, son."
MoGo's rating: 8/10
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