Jan. 04, 2003 - 2:52 pm
ok, i finally got back to the Daniel Day-Lewis marathon of the week. this film has been talked about by Keith for a long time. he even owns a copy of it on vhs. i never really knew what it was about, but i decided that it definitely needed to be included this week, so i went ahead to see what all the fuss was about.
this is an extremely political and personal drama that takes place in Ireland in the late 90s. Daniel Day-Lewis gets released from prison at the beginning of the film, apparently as a result of crimes performed while in service of the IRA. they never say exactly what he did, only that he was true to the men that he served with and kept his mouth shut while in custody. fourteen years before this took place, he was in love with Emily Watson's character, so he returns to his hometown simply to be close to her. even though she's married (now a prisoner's wife) and has a son, he still can't forget her. but there's a lot of word battles in this movie about "the cause" and getting the POWs released, and making peace between the Catholics and the Protestants. like i said, lots of personal drama, lot of political drama.
i personally didn't enjoy it too much. it was ok, but the material was more of a political statement than creative filmmaking. i couldn't get into it. i understand what they were talking about, and i definitely sympathize with what has been going on in Ireland for the past few decades, but as a film i wasn't overly impressed. as always, Daniel Day-Lewis does an awesome job, but this is just one where his quiet, introspective character wasn't enough to lift up the film to any great heights. interesting, but not outstanding.