Five Minutes of Heaven (2009)

The story of former UVF member Alistair Little (Liam Neeson). Twenty-five years after Little killed Joe Griffen's brother, the media arrange an auspicious meeting between the two.Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called it "very good at stating the obvious but fails to bring new insight to this age-old morality tale". That seems like a fair opinion to me. The film is good, topical, and Neeson is a great casting choice. But it does not seem to add anything new.Sadly, I am not sure if this film had much impact outside of the United Kingdom, because the Irish problem is something Americans are only vaguely aware of.

I saw the film today and I thought it was brilliant. The whole movie has such a fine balance. It fully respects the suffering of the two main characters (Griffin and Little) and still it is aware of the extreme incompatibility in sympathizing with both parties at the same time.Yet, the two characters meet eventually in this paradox: let go what you will never forget, because nothing will ever be undone.In my opinion, that is Hirschbiegels bare pragmatic answer to the moral issue of forgiveness: you can't unbreak, you can't solve it, so move on or fade away. That way, forgiving becomes the one thing the victim can control, while the (remorseful) killer depends on that decision.The phone call 'we are finished', were five seconds of heaven, for both characters, I guess.

An interesting and well-intentioned film on the nature of violence, sorrow and guilt on the two individuals involved.Basically a terrorist act is committed in Northern Ireland. The terrorist kills a man but is seen by the younger brother of this murdered man. The terrorist is jailed and the younger brother is tormented the rest of his life by this brutal act.After about 30 years there is a face-to-face between the two – they have never met since the day of the murder. This encounter is sponsored by the TV media and we are to bare witness. This is very well done and we can feel the anguish of both. The film-makers do give us a lasting view that the victims of crime can never hope to completely recover – the scars remain. So this is not a film about reconciliation between oppressor and victim or that revolves entirely around the feelings of guilt of the protagonist.The later encounter, after the media one, was somewhat less satisfying. Nevertheless this film has a strong psychological grip and the acting of the two main characters makes this very worthwhile. And towards the end there is hope for the two of them.

More than thirty years after he saw his older brother gunned down by a teenage "member" of the UVF, Joe Griffin's wounds are still fresh and the memories of that night still vivid. For this reason he sincerely doubts his decision to do a one-to-one interview with the killer. For Alistair Little it is a more familiar process as he has done much public soul-searching since his "rehabilitation".I came to this film attracted by it being set in Ulster, place of my birth and first 18 years alive. The big names in the cast and directing duties also had a part to play and I envisaged this being a raw two-handed between the two men with plenty for both of them to get their teeth into as they play off each other – not sure why I thought this, but I did. The reality is that the two men barely share a scene, and when they do it is brief and ironically not as good as when they are apart doing their own thing with their own character. In the majority of the film we come to understand (well, in a simple way at least) the two men and who they have become as a result of that one shared event in their lives. How things appear are not necessarily the way they are and where the power lies is equally blurred. This continues as we learn about the two men.Many viewers may be disappointed about how the film plays out, because there isn't really a handful of "big" actorly scenes but rather a slow and steady development which speaks more of a numbing and long-lasting pain on all sides – which is convincing and befitting the situation in the region. It doesn't offer easy answers and, although some of it can be interpreted as pat, it mostly manages to avoid being obvious or clichéd in what it is saying. Both Nesbit and Neeson are on good form and, in hindsight, the lack of showboating material is only a good thing. They play it subtle and they play it very well. Nesbit impressed me the most because if I'm honest I expected less from him but he does very well. Neeson is solid and controlled but reveals much with the delivery of key scenes. Beyond the two of them there may as well be anyone since they are the focus, but supporting turns from Marinca, Orr and a few others don't distract.Overall Five Minutes of Heaven is not an earth shattering film nor is it a firey one. Instead it is a controlled study of the impacts beyond the bullets on two specific characters. While it tends towards cliché the manner of delivery from all involved mean it doesn't ever become pat or obvious but rather remains natural and convincing. Well worth seeing.