InterMission *** (2003, Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy, Kelly Macdonald, Shirley Henderson, Colm Meaney) – Classic Movie Review 1103

Romance and violence are the main stands of director John Crowley’s intriguing 2003 patchwork of Irish life, which unravels as the lives of a bunch of losers intersect in Dublin.

Colin Farrell stars as a petty thug who hits a shop assistant for a few Euros, and Cillian Murphy plays a store clerk involved in kidnap and theft when his girlfriend Kelly Macdonald dumps him.

With hard, dedicated work from Farrell, Murphy, Macdonald, Shirley Henderson as Sally and Colm Meaney as a shady cop, the good acting brings InterMission to life. And yet screenwriter Mark O’Rowe’s intriguingly devised film is as often dull as it is funny or dramatic.

Outstanding on the soundtrack are U2’s Out of Control, Clannad’s Newgrange, Gark Kemp’s True, The Magnetic Fields’ I Don’t Want to Get Over You and Farrell’s rendition of I Fought the Law.

InterMission is still John Crowley’s most renowned film but he re-emerged as the director of Brooklyn in 2015.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1103

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