Review of Five Minutes of Heaven (2009) by Dan Y — 11 May 2010

Well told, stripped down and gritty without any flash or glitz. The first 25 minutes, which take place in Ireland circa 1975, are brilliantly filmed and acted. The era is captured and conveyed so well, yet it's done in less than half an hour as the movie transitions to present day.

In '75, Joe Griffin's brother was shot dead in their childhood home in the Irish town of Largen by Alistair Little at the instruction of the Ulster Volunteer Force, or UVF which opposed Irish home rule. Joe stood less than five feet away from Alistair as he shot Joe's brother, and he spent the next 30+ years enduring the torment of it, not only from himself, but his mother. Flash to present day: Joe is being driven to a private location for an Irish television show to film he and Alistair meeting for the first time since the murder. Joe has the intention of exacting revenge, but circumstances change and his quest for vengeance takes a turn.

The young kids they found to play the characters in the opening flashback nailed it perfectly, as did Liam Neeson as Little and James Nesbitt as Griffin. The message of not letting the past consume is wonderfully delivered, as is Little's testimony about not killing innocent people as well as his portrayal of a broken man, haunted by the ghosts of his past.