Thursday, May 6, 2010

Five Minutes of Heaven [2009]


Two men must face their pasts - one a murderer (Liam Neeson) - the other the murderer's victim's brother (James Nesbitt) in a televised sit down "confrontation".

What I liked about this film was that it does a pretty good job of balancing the two sides of the story. It’s not clear if you were to sympathize more with the broken victim’s brother – who’s irritable and full of hate (for good reason) – or the murderer who’s broken in his own way and inside his cool exterior is begging for redemption and forgiveness. This could’ve easily been a clown hammer movie – telling you what to feel – but it’s more ambiguous than that. That being said – over all I found the story to be intriguing – yet anti-climatic on a couple fronts – which I guess is good because you are not looking at a typical resolution – but still a bit of a “let down” for the build-up.

I felt the direction was fantastic – and the acting was outstanding by both principles. I’m giving it a 4 out of 5.

[directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel]

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