Review of Intermission (2003) by Curtis W — 14 Jun 2004

For some reason, this is showing just once a day at only the cool Lido theater in Bangkok. It has Thai subtitles. It needs English subtitles, because I can't understand what people are saying half the time.

This is an Irish film. Colin Farrell and Shirley Henderson were the only folks I recognized.

Oh wait. That's not true. Colm "Chief O'Brien" Meaney is also in this. He plays a right bastard of a plain clothes cop. It's probably his strongest role outside Deep Space Nine.

It's an ensemble romantic crime comedy, with the characters being drawn in tighter and tighter as the story rolls along. It's a lot of fun.

I took particular delight in the two characters working in the warehouse grocery store and their asshole boss, who always used expressions, "as the Americans say." Pretty annoying. I'd throw a can of peas at him, too.

Farrell is great. One minute he's Mr Nice Guy. Then he's hauling off and breaking your nose.

Shirley Henderson plays a woman who was shit on, literally, by an ex-boyfriend. She's let herself go, according to her sister. She has a mustache, and it's a running joke throughout the film.

I'm wondering if I missed something. The review I read of this told about two double decker buses running down the road, one driving backwards, so the drivers could talk to each other. In the version I saw tonight, the buses were stopped.

But then there was some other stuff, like the woman whose bald-headed husband of 14 years left her for a younger woman having sex with a younger guy and hauling off and hitting him in the jaw while they are going at it.

Even without English subtitles, this was a fun movie.