Five Minutes of Heaven Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Truth hurts

The film, first seen on BBC2, is about a meeting between 2 men played by Nesbitt and Neeson set in the present day with flashbacks to the times of trouble in Northern Ireland. The scene is set with the Nesbitt character on his way to the meeting arranged by a TV company.

The 'reconciliation' meeting is of such significance that the nervousness of all involved is palpable. There is huge expectation on all sides because the Nesbitt character, Joe, is the brother of a young man who had been murdered by the loyalist Neeson character in the 70's. Joe had witnessed the killing when a young boy.

The television people are very realistically portrayed as clever, manipulative and on the surface charming and kind to the protaganists but actually with no empathy or understanding of the terrible depth of feeling in both men.

I have not seen such a true performance as James Nesbitt's in this film for a very long time.

The part is extremely well written but his acting portrays painfully the agony and criss crossing feelings of a fundamentally ordinary man whose life has been twisted by horrendous events and who finds himself in this contrived media-manipulated situation.

Liam Neeson is also very believable as the man who has to live with his crimes, the sadness of a person who cannot forgive himself

manifesting itself in his every sentence and action but who has the most understanding of the man he has been set up to meet.

A wonderful film showing the aftermath of trauma in the most truthful way I have seen for some time.

Simply stunning - by far the best drama about the Troubles so far.

At the start of this review I have to admit to being a 'child of the troubles', so it was with some trepidation that I watched this drama on BBC2. The reality of the troubles was very simple on one level and extremely compex on another. The simple problem is how do two communities survive with so many deep wounds between them. The last thing I wanted was to watch a 'movie' that trivialised the violence that has dominated most of my life even though I was not directly involved.

I need not have feared. This drama explored the issues in a raw, realistic and mature way. This is no light viewing. The acting is superb. The characters sound and feel like people from the communities they represent. N.Ireland is a country emerging from a brutal, horrible dirty little war that defined a generation. The drama is real here. It feels hard. It hurts. It never feels simplistic or contrived. It is the story that is being written by a million souls in a corner of Europe. There are no happy endings here but there is hope. It is real hope, hope with scars but hope nonetheless.

To put it bluntly this is the finest bit of drama I have seen about N.Ireland and probably the best bit of drama I have seen in the last 10 years full stop.