Intermission

Starring: Colin Farrell, Shirley Henderson, Rory Keenan, Kelly MacDonald, Michael McElhatton, Colm Meaney, Cillian Murphy, Deirdre O'Kane, David Wilmot Directed By: John Crowley Written By: Mark O'Rowe IFC Films Rated R

Intermission is an action/comedy/drama set amidst the rich background of contemporary Ireland where love, tragedy, passion and crime mingle and ricochet off each other in a rich, dramatic landscape. It's a well-filmed cinematic soap opera featuring a cast of almost every major Irish actor in film today.

Scenes jump around from character to character in quick succession, giving the feel of episodic drama. John (Cillian Murpy) is wearing an outrageous mask because he's holding-up a bank manager named Sam. Sam (Michael McElhatton) is dating his ex-girlfriend, Deirdre (Kelly MacDonald). Sam left his wife Noeleen (Deirdre O'Kane) and now she's dating John's best friend, Oscar (David Wilmot), but neither John nor Oscar knows of Noeleen's estranged marriage with Sam. As bewildering as this description is, the movie is an effortless pleasure to follow from beginning to end.

The complex plot could've been a hopeless mess, were it not for the fact that all of the elements are so well orchestrated. The opening scene brilliantly sets the tone for the rest of the film. Colin Farrell (The Recruit, Phone Booth) plays Lehiff, a charismatic young punk who is flirting with a girl behind the counter at a diner. Romance turns suddenly to violence and the totality of the moment launches headlong into a chase scene.

Colm Meaney (Boys of County Clare, The Commitments) plays the opposite end of the law. He's a tough Irish cop with an attitude, a Charles Bronson/Dirty Harry with a dark egotistical bent. He's being followed by a local TV news producer Ben (Tomas O'Suilleabhain) who's grown tired of human interest stories and wants to handle something with a darker edge. The real darkness begins to show as he gets further into his documentary and begins to wonder whether or not he's really following a hero.

The irresistibly beautiful Shirley Henderson (Bridgit Jones' Diary, Once Upon a Time n the Midlands) plays Sally, a strong-willed woman who was hurt in a previous relationship. She is particularly shy until the double-decker bus she's in tips over and suddenly she finds herself being interviewed for TV news. Other than the repercussions that the accident has for the bus driver's livelihood, this episode has little if anything to do with the rest of the film. Henderson's performance, which is equal parts endearing and heartbreaking, single-handedly holds up a section of film that could've completely sagged into irrelevance without her.

For all its labyrinthine plot elements and dizzying habit of jumping from one scene to the next with little warning, the script is so thematically tight that a viewer's mind could play it like a timpani. It's the kind of fun that has resonance when the mind taps gently at the memory of a scene. This is a film with a pop-cinema feel that's just as much fun to think about afterwards as it was to see it in the first place.

Russ Bickerstaff is a local poet and writer. His poems can be heard regularly at Linneman's Monday Poetry Night.