Blu-Ray Review: Well-Cast ‘Five Minutes of Heaven’ Tries Too Hard

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CHICAGO – “Five Minutes of Heaven” is a good film with the potential to be a great one. Though it garnered prizes for its writing and direction at Sundance, it’s precisely the work of screenwriter Guy Hibbert and director Oliver Hirschbiegel that makes the film occasionally falter. This material may have worked better as a two-man play featuring the same two stars, whose brilliant performances help the picture succeed in spite of itself.

The cycle of terrorist violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 80s has been the subject of several recent pictures, yet “Heaven” may be the first to blatantly parallel the troubled time period with present day conflicts. That’s partly because much of the film is set in 2008, thirty-three years after an act of violence occurred that forever altered the lives of two men. Yet while Steve McQueen’s masterful IRA hunger strike drama “Hunger” elevated social commentary to the level of an art form, “Five Minutes of Heaven” settles for didacticism rather than ambiguity, while relying too heavily on standard thriller gimmicks.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

The opening sound of a ticking clock appropriately sets the tone for this tale, which consists largely of tension-building suspense as its lead characters inch closer and closer to each other. This rhythmic sound is mirrored by the kicking of a ball by a young Catholic boy, Joe Griffen, whose older brother is destined to be murdered on one bloody evening in 1975. Seventeen-year-old Alistair Little (Mark David) joined the Ulster Volunteer Force as a frightened Irish-Protestant determined to prove his manhood. He kills Joe’s brother merely because of his identity as the faceless enemy. Hirschbiegel’s dark and gritty depiction of a mid-70s Ireland under the constant threat of violence will be familiar to any moviegoer who saw Julian Jarrold’s first installment of the “Red Riding” trilogy.

Liam Neeson stars in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Five Minutes of Heaven.
Liam Neeson stars in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Five Minutes of Heaven.
Photo credit: MPI Home Video

When the adult actors take over during the film’s midsection, “Heaven” is at its strongest. An utterly electrifying James Nesbitt plays the grown-up Joe as a fiercely bitter man who can barely contain his inner-rage. As Alistair, Liam Neeson has the trickier task of playing the mellowed-out shell of a man overcome with guilt about his violent past. These two are scheduled to meet for the first time on a televised talk show aiming to stage their reconciliation, yet neither man believes one is possible. Nesbitt dominates the film’s first half, with his scathing sarcasm and wildly vengeful eyes. There’s a memorable moment when Nesbitt gazes at his reflection, while hiding a knife that he intends to use in order to enact his revenge (this intentionally resembles an early sequence where the teenage Alistair hides his gun). The sullen Neeson remains an enigmatic presence until a four-minute monologue in the middle of the picture, which he recites to TV cameras as if it’s a mantra he’s created in order to preserve his sanity. Yet Neeson makes the words sound as if they’re jutting directly from a helplessly damaged soul steeped in sorrow and regret. The scene is a reminder of just how riveting of an actor the recently miscast Neeson can be with the right material.

Five Minutes of Heaven was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on April 27th, 2010.
Five Minutes of Heaven was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on April 27th, 2010.
Photo credit: MPI Home Video

Though the central plot of “Heaven” sounds like the ingredients for a blood-spattered “Frost/Nixon”-style drama, Hirschbiegel delays Alistair and Joe’s confrontation until a disappointingly conventional and rather unconvincing climax. The early scenes centering on the crime are the only ones based in fact. Hirschbiegel and Hibbert had an opportunity to freely delve into the moral complexities of the conflict between these two men, yet their portrayal of the characters feels slight even in a film clocking in at well under ninety minutes. Alistair is basically sorry, while Joe wants vengeance, and there doesn’t seem to be much depth beyond these two basic characteristics. Hibbert’s dialogue is often far too on-the-nose, spelling everything out with artless obviousness, while the sound design tries too hard in its attempts to make the audience jump at countless mundane noises. This technique has been used since the beginning of talkies in order to portray a timorous character’s heightened psyche, yet “Heaven” hammers it into the ground. Yes, this picture is certainly a flawed slice of fictionalized reality, and a far cry from Hirschbiegel’s excellent Holocaust-era drama, “Downfall.” But the performances by Neeson and Nesbitt transcend the picture’s shortcomings. They alone make the majority of “Heaven”’s minutes worth seeing.

“Five Minutes of Heaven” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio), and includes nothing more than the film’s theatrical trailer, as well as a 4-minute behind-the-scenes featurette that seems to have been made for IFC On Demand. Producer Eoin O’Callaghan briefly speaks about approaching the real-life Alistair and Joe about the project, while director Hirschbiegel refers to the story as “Shakespearean,” and claims that the same story could be set in “Bosnia or Lebanon.”

‘Five Minutes of Heaven’ is released by MPI Home Video and stars Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Anamaria Marinca and Mark David. It was written by Guy Hibbert and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. It was released on April 27th, 2010. It is not rated.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Matt Fagerholm

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

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