Intermission is a 2003 film directed by John Crowley which tells a story of a young couple and people surrounding them. The film is set in Dublin, Ireland and is filmed in a TV drama style with several story-lines crossing over one another during the course of the film.

Mark O'Rowe wrote the screenplay for this black comedy, set in Dublin, which is shot in a documentary-like style.

Plot

Lehiff (Colin Farrell) is a petty criminal always involved in trouble. Lehiff’s nemesis, Garda Detective Jerry Lynch (Colm Meaney) presents himself as a savior who fights the "scumbags" on Dublin’s streets, and enlists the help of Ben Campion (Tomas O'Suilleabhain), an ambitious film-maker and the bane of his "go-softer" boss, who considers Lynch too nasty a subject to be shown on a mainstream “docusoap” series on Irish terrestrial TV.

Ben is told to focus his attention on Sally (Shirley Henderson), who helped passengers after their double-decker bus crashes on its side. Sally is deeply insecure about her looks, and grows bitter when her sister Deirdre (Kelly Macdonald) flaunts her new boyfriend, Sam (Michael McElhatton), a middle-aged bank manager who has left his wife of 14 years, Noeleen (Deirdre O'Kane), leaving her to question her own self-worth as a woman and wife.

Deirdre is the ex-girlfriend of John (Cillian Murphy), who is utterly lost without Deirdre and will do anything to win her back. Thus, he gets involved in an absurd plan: kidnap Sam, force him to go to his bank, and get ransom money. This plan involves Mick (Brían F. O'Byrne), the man who had driven the bus which crashed, and Lehiff. As might be expected, things go awry when Sam, who has the money, is assaulted by an enraged Noeleen on the street. Mick and John flee the scene without their money.

Mick becomes obsessed with getting revenge on the boy, Philip (Taylor Molloy), who had lobbed the stone into the windshield, causing him to swerve and crash the bus he was driving (and for which he got fired). Things do not go quite his way, and he ends up learning a bitter lesson. As for Lehiff, Lynch corners him in an open field, and the scene is set for a confrontation that ends in a way nobody expects.

As the credits roll, Noeleen and Sam are in their house watching television, obviously back together, with her bullying him into changing the channel by hand, as opposed to using the remote control.

Cast

• Colin Farrell as Lehiff. Like many of the characters seen in the movie, Lehiff has a talent for trouble with the law. His character is incomplete without doing something criminal, and indeed, many, if not all, of the characters in the movie seem totally dysfunctional and as incomplete as he is, albeit in their differing ways.
• Cillian Murphy as John, Deirdre's former boyfriend
• Kelly Macdonald as Deirdre
• Colm Meaney as Detective Jerry Lynch
• Shirley Henderson as Sally
• Deirdre O'Kane as Noeleen
• Michael McElhatton as Sam, a middle-aged bank manager
• Tomas O'Suilleabhain as Ben Campion, an ambitious film-maker
• Brian F. O'Byrne as Mick, the bus driver
• Ger Ryan as Maura, the mother

Production

Technical details

• IFCO Rating: 15PG (cinema) / 15 (video)
• BBFC Rating: 18
• MPAA Rating: R

Reception

The film was well received by Critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an aggregate rating of 73% based on 93 reviews, with the critical consensus describes the film as "An edgy and energetic ensemble story".

Noted critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film good reviews.Roeper describe it as "a likable film about nasty people"

References

External links