Resurrection Man ** (1998, Stuart Townsend, Brenda Fricker, John Hannah, James Nesbitt) – Classic Movie Review 2146

Director Marc Evans’s 1998 thriller is an extremely nasty-toned, alienating melodrama, set in 1975 Belfast. It opens a can of worms with its barrel-load of violence and clichés and pours them liberally over the familiar territory of the Irish problem.

Why should we care about the film’s appalling anti-hero, this ‘Resurrection Man’, a vile pretty-boy killer called Victor Kelly (Stuart Townsend) first encountered torturing a man with a Stanley knife?

What do we learn about him as he leads a gang of killers on a random murder spree? He is a young Protestant who hates the Catholics so much that he begins to murder them. He loves James Cagney gangster movies (particularly The Public Enemy, 1931) and his tolerant old mammy (Brenda Fricker, in the film’s best performance). He enjoys killing and torturing. Entertaining? Illuminating? Exciting? Redundant!

To be fair, the movie is quite well made, stylishly shot and decently acted by some very good actors. But it is all pointless. If there are any depths, they remain hidden under all the violence. The film is sheer torture to sit through.

Also in the fine cast are John Hannah, James Nesbitt, James Ellis, Derek Thompson, Sean Caffrey, Geraldine O’Rawe and Sean McGinley.

Eoin McNamee bases the screenplay on his own novel. The film is rated R for strong sadistic violence, pervasive language, drug use and a scene of sexuality.

Welsh director Marc Evans is known for My Little Eye (2002), Trauma (2004) and Snow Cake (2006).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2146

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