Route Irish (2010) – A Film Review
In The Navigators (2001), Ken Loach trained his camera on the privatisation of the British railways. More particularly, he wanted to depict the economic, physical, mental, and even moral implications of unfettered capitalism on a group of hitherto happy-go-lucky labourers. In a sense, with his latest offering in Route Irish, he is returning to this same theme, as he shows how the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq have become the playground of private security firms, whose actions are subject to precious little scrutiny. However, Mr. Loach achieves this by literally bringing the war back home to the streets of Liverpool and the inability of troubled former soldier Fergus (Mark Womack) to accept that his best friend Frankie (John Bishop) could have died from being “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
What follows then is a not entirely successful welding together of Mr. Loach’s social justice sensibilities with the tropes of a vengeance thriller. The main problem is really with Paul Laverty’s screenplay, which lacks both the tension and ability to disguise plot twists needed to make the latter work, whilst some of the dialogue is painfully expositional. On the other hand, the cuts to footage of the bloody carnage actually being wreaked in places like Baghdad may not exactly be subtle either. However, why should anything that appalling ever be? Moreover, its insertion into a work so pointedly set in the heart of working-class Britain allows links to be drawn between how ordinary people suffer everywhere, whilst a handful of remorseless exploiters are able to profit greatly.
That said, Route Irish ultimately has the feel of a half-baked Sunday night mini-series on television. That said, the casting is excellent and Fergus does make for an agreeably angry and single-minded anti-hero here. As with The Navigators, though, it has all come at the price of his soul.
“That said, Route Irish ultimately has the feel of a half-baked Sunday night mini-series on television.”
That’s too bad Longman, though you do reverse yourself a bit with the fine casting. I will certainly see this as I am a huge Loach fan, and am counting the days for the arrival of my KES blu-ray DVD. But this is a long way from those days I know, and from CATHY COME HOME as well, and perhaps even THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, but anything by Loach is always welcome. I hear what you are saying though about the uneasy mix of social justive sensibilities and a revenge thriller.
On anyother note Longman, I just now saw your urgings on an Irish film playing here in Brooklyn for one-week called ONE HUNDRED MORNINGS! And I have decided to see it on Thursday night (it’s final day) at 10:00 P.M. I will have a full report on the Diary on Monday! Thanks for this great heads-up and the link to the Times review!!! I just responded to you finally on that past diary thread!
29 March 2011 at 22:21
Its worth seeing for that mix of styles,Sam. Looking forward to your thoughts on it down the road.
1 April 2011 at 06:30
Well, Sir, I just purchased my ticket online for tonight’s late showing in Brooklyn. The ticket price was a ridiculous inexpensive five bucks, and the theatre (as you mentioned) looks like wuite the place. From Dublin you have now opened my eyes to another promising place in my own backyard.
31 March 2011 at 18:28
Hope that you had a good time, Sam. You’re some man for getting around town! Yes, five bucks – cracking value. Hope that you enjoyed the overall experience – it sounded different!
1 April 2011 at 06:32
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Longman, here is my report on the experience, published on the diary:
“Our esteemed friend Longman Oz in Dublin informed me of a new Brooklyn movie theatre called the ‘retro cinema’ which sits literally under the Brooklyn Bridge. It was this location I traveled solo to on a rainy Thursday night, and discovered a most interesting screening place: a back room of a busy restaurant bar, that shows only movies that failed to win Manhattan openings, films that may have made their mark at Cannes, Sundance and elsewhere. The seats were reportedly taken from cars and actually are quite comfortable, and a bar waiter asks repeatedly before the film begings if “everyone is good with the food!” The film is is not run on a projector by rather on a blu-ray disc on a 12 foot screen. The results were actually quite impressive, and the film, ONE HUNDRED MORNINGS, while not remotely great, still makes a fine case for the future of Irish director Conor Horgan, who imparts some subtle intrigue to his present-day apocalyptic scenario. I guess we’ve seen so many end-of the-world movies that have hit us over the head, that a pull back can become tedious, but I’d dare say Conor’s film reminded me in tone and pacing of Lynn Littman’s 1983 TESTAMENT, though that earlier film is far more disturbing, while Conor documents his societal beakdown in far more predictable terms. The outcome in ONE HUNDRED MORNINGS is expected and nothing revelatory, but the film is memorable for it’s deliberate pacing and attention to the smallest cracks that open the floodgate to the inherent barbaric instincts that surface in such a doomsday scenario. I would like to thank Longman for his heads-up on the film and this unique theatre in this memorable seedy neighborhood, and would like to mention that our friend Chuck Bowen penned a terrific review of the film for SLANT:” http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/one-hundred-mornings/5356
5 April 2011 at 14:57
Thanks Sam. I had seen it – just not had the time to give it the response it deserved. Be over shortly.
5 April 2011 at 22:01
Thanks for the great response at WitD Longman! I know you’ve been a a busy beaver, and frankly I’m glad to hear it. In any case I eagerly await your next post, and hope you have a productive weekend.
8 April 2011 at 20:44
Thanks Sam. Struggling to get out to the cinema at the moment, which strangles this site as a result! However, little stays the same for long, so this site will kick off again one of these days!
9 April 2011 at 10:18
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