This absolutely amazing Irish dark comedy named Intermission, is one of the most refreshing movies I’ve watched lately. It looks as an Irish Trainspotting mixed with Quentin Tarantino‘s Pulp Fiction. It is tough, it is insane, and it is watchable.
I hardly believe that I’m going to review two John Crowley movies almost in a row, but I have been deeply impressed by this one, which is also his debut. It’s about a few characters’ personal stories which mixed and interlaced in a very verbal common thread. It is also excellently written by the Irish Mark O’Rowe, a strong reminder of the Scottish Irvine Welsh in person.
Intermission – Colin Farrell with Kerry Condon
[source]
It stars Colin Farrell as Lehiff, a violent nasty fellow with a tail of troubles bigger than himself. The movie opens with a conversation between him and Kerry Condon (“Octavia of the Julii“) who is a bartender or waitress in a mall’s Café. We also find Kelly Macdonald from Trainspotting as Deirdre, who used to be John’s girlfriend, John being the character played by Cillian Murphy, the versatile Irish preferred by Neil Jordan and Christopher Nolan in more than one movie. Colm Meaney, who’s mug appears in any major British movie and is often borrowed across the ocean in the States with his very expressive face and accent, is detective Jerry Lynch, who dreams of becoming a cop reality show star, preferably his own, and convinced the TV filmmaker Ben Campion (a guy I have never heard of until now, named Tomás Ó Súilleabháin) to make at least an episode “on the streets” (“with Detective Jerry Lynch”, of course), hilarious even if it is also violent. By the way, the language is pretty strong and action is sometimes crude, but one never loses the comedy, no matter what crime happens every moment. We meet another Scottish playing an Irish, the famous Shirley Henderson as Sally, Deirdre’s sister, another member of the Trainspotting crew, and not only that, same as Kelly Macdonald. After John and Deirdre split up, she accepted Sam to move in her rented house. This one is played by Michael McElhatton, and he is a forty something balding bank manager married with Noeleen (Deirdre O’Kane). Without many scruples, he just announced Noeleen that he “clicked” with Deirdre, made his luggage and is gone. Eventually we have two more characters to present, both friends of John, one is Oscar, his work mate, played by David Wilmot, and the other one is Mick, a bus driver played by Brian F. O’Byrne. The others aren’t very important, a supermarket manager who admires the Americans and a vile little boy who causes horrible things to happen when he appears.
Intermission – poster
[source: youtube.com]
Almost forgetting Shirley Henderson’s mustache, a character on its own. Down here is the trailer which will convince you of this independent movie’s quality.
Released in 2003, Intermission is a 6.9 imdb, running for 105 minutes. Excellent debut, excellent played, excellent written, and excellent directed. It has been kept strong and simple.
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