Customer Reviews

Five Minutes of Heaven

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When friend Vika (Anamaria Marinca) asks Joe Griffen (James Nesbitt), the brother of a man killed in 1975 by one Alistair Little (Liam Neeson), if killing Alistair would not be good for him, Joe replies ' Not good for me? My five minutes of heaven!' And so runs the razor sharp dialog and acting and power of this little film from the UK that relates the story of a 1975 event in Northern Ireland when Catholics and Protestants were at war and the young Protestant Alistair Little (Mark David), as a UVF member (Ulster Volunteer Force), gathers his friends and 'kills a Catholic' - but the murder happens in front of the victim's 11-year-old brother Joe Griffen. Flash forward to 2008 when Alistair Little (now Liam Neeson) has served his prison term and is set up by the media to relate the story of the incident and supposedly meet and shake hands on camera with the now mature Joe Griffen. It is a film about youthful involvement in terrorism and the sequelae that haunts or obsesses the victim's family and the perpetrator. The confrontation between Alistair and Joe is a devastating one.

Guy Hibbert wrote this excruciatingly visceral screenplay and Oliver Hirschbiegel directs a first rate cast. Though Liam Neeson is billed as the star, the film belongs to the powerful acting by James Nesbitt as the vengeful Joe Griffen. The cinematography is dark and dank like the atmosphere in both the warring fog of 1975 and the attempt at reconciliation in 2008. There are subtle pieces of thoughtful enhancement, such as the use of the Mozart 'Requiem' in the near hidden score. In all, this is a moving film about truth and reconciliation that deserves the attention of us all, especially in this time of random acts of terrorism and their possible imprint on our minds and on society. Grady Harp, January 10

A perfect movie is a rare thing. No committee can produce perfection; the too many cooks are never so present as during the production of a movie. I've seen a few, but not many. When 1 person does everything, there's one vision to be 1% short. But when tens or hundreds do it, then each contributes his individual failure until we're left wondering, as we do when watching some YouTube clip of kids riding their bikes off a roof, "Wow..what the **** were they thinking?" However, "Five Minutes of Heaven" comes darn close to perfection.

Two men collide, and then 33 years later collide again. Some serious sparks ensue. Who was right? Who lost the most? Who owes what to whom?

If you're reading these reviews, I'd advise you to stop now and get this film. This is fine film making with a pungent theme. Watch it for its powerful and beautiful tale of loss and recovery. Watch it for two great actors giving superlative performances. Watch it recreate a terrifying yet frightfully close world where hell was always around the corner and ever on the TV. And watch it for what it has to say about the problems, the not easily fixed challenges, we face in the world today....

One of the best films I have seen on the struggle to reconcile with one's own self as well as one's enemy. There is no cheap forgiveness portrayed here. The acting by Neeson and Nebitt is unbelievably good and the directing is incredible. I couldn't believe that this was a made-for-tv film. Goes to show that on a shoe-string budget, BBC can produce stuff that is far superior to the drivel that comes out the mouth of Hollywood.

"Five Minutes of Heaven" is a gripping tale of the aftermath of a murder. In 1975, Alistair, then 17, murders a Catholic man to make a name for himself in Belfast. The man's younger brother, Joe, still a child, witnessed the murder and lived for 33 years with the guilt that was put on him by his mother. The story begins when a TV program wanted to film their "reconciliation." Alistair has become a world renowned speaker because of the insights he has learned while dealing with his guilt. And Joe is just an average guy with vengeance stewing in his heart. The tumult of emotions both men experience as they prepare for their meeting is riveting. Alistair knew there would be no reconciliation. And Joe just wants his five minutes of heaven - the moments he'll spend exacting vengeance. How the two men finally meet and what becomes of them is the perfect culmination for this tale of tragedy and redemption. In the end, it is about finding what is good in your life and moving on. As an aside, I do like the way the movie portrayed the mercenary nature of TV programs in their quest for ratings.

Do NOT give up on this movie in the first third. I stayed with it because a very experienced global law enforcement officer with anti-terrorism experience told me the movie was worth seeing through to the end, and he was absolutely right.

This is a fine depiction of how gangs and religious and political conflicts get started, it is a superb depiction of the "collateral damage" that affects "bystanders" to the end of their days, and it ends absolutely brilliantly with a typically strong but never-the-less very moving closure by BOTH of the main actors.

Highly recommended to those who wish to think about cause and effect and the psychological dimensions of intra-community violence.

My wife and I watched the movie just as violence erupted as some ships carryng humanitarian aid to the Palestinian Gaza Strip tried to break through Israel's blockade.
One more conflict in a long and often violent struggle.

This movie takes on another such struggle ---between the Irish Catholics and Protestants
Bringing it down in 1975 to a personal struggle in the bigger war. Teen-age Protestant Alistair Little shoots and kills a teen-age Catholic young man, in sight of his younger brother. The brother suffers horrible abuse from his mother, who keeps yelling that "you could have stopped it," while she is pummeling him.

Fast forward ---Little eventually gets out of jail and the young brother grows into a troubled adulthood.

Enter personal TV, and the two are pitted to confront each other on a kind of reality show.
Enough said. By then the movie should have hooked you and you will want to see how this all plays out.

Both men have some damage going in, and the tv vultures are circling.
I really welcomed the appearance of the show's "gofer" Vika, played super well by Anamaria Marinca. She doesn't say a lot, but each time she does talk,there is wisdom and caring for the men waiting to go on with the show.

Well worth seeing, say with your spouse or a friend. Heck, it might be helpful to have your dog or dogs there too. They always bring out our best instincts. Just like our Alaska Husky Avu does.
Earl

Excellent screenplay. Beautifully filmed. Not sure why this was described as a "political thriller." There was definately a political aspect to the film, but not a thriller aspect. Nevertheless, the character development was superb and the film was very moving.

I've been an admirer of Liam Neeson for several years. I respect how he dares to bring complexity and humanity to nearly every part he does. In this film, these qualities shine brilliantly. Very rarely--especially in modern films does a writer dare to admit or even suggest that the antagonist or 'baddie' is still Human. This film's writer not only suggests it but proves it powerfully via Neeson's superb performance.

Both James and Liam give gripping performances as Little and Griffen. The characters are very credibly done, having emotional and mental wounds. This is not an action piece. For which, I'm very grateful. Instead, it's a drama that's intelligent and challenges the viewer's perceptions. A 'thinking person's' film, if you will. This type of film seems a dying breed so I'm grateful to have found it. Unlike in Taken, Liam's char isn't thirsting for revenge...he is in fact, a traumatized man searching diligently for healing and peace.

Whereas Griffen is consumed by hate and pain and believes revenge will give him the satisfaction and solace he longs for. Very human but also very misguided. I don't think reconciliation actually occurred between Griffen and Little. Instead, I feel an understanding was finally truly achieved which demonstrated one man's change of heart and caused the other's. This film is about hope, healing, forgiveness, and redemption. Well executed and I'll happily own my copy within a few days!

For the reviewer that was so impressed with Liam in Taken, may I suggest Michael Collins? It's an action-drama and both Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman are very good in it. Though it's very gritty and full of language. Yet, if one looks beyond these details to the heart beneath the story is a powerful one.

Northern Ireland was plagued for some thirty years with "The Troubles," sectarian violence between Protestant and Catholics before the "Good Friday Agreement" of 1998. Nearly four thousand people died. This film is about this conflict; the introduction states it's a "fiction inspired by two men who bear the legacy of one of these killings."

The key event is the murder of a young Catholic man by a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, a Protestant, pro-British group. There was "nothing personal" about the murder; it was part of "The Troubles." The killer was only fifteen when he joined the UVF. Thirty-three years later a film production team sets up a meeting between the killer (who served twelve years in prison) and the victim's brother. The brother was about twelve when he witnessed the murder and narrowly escaped death himself.

To say much more would be to spoil this outstanding film. Liam Neeson is solid as the adult killer. James Nesbit is excellent as the jittery, weak-willed, revenge-hungry adult brother. Anamaria Marinca almost steals the show in a small role as a gofer for the film production team to whom the brother confides his true feelings.

I must say this film may not be for everyone. Sometimes the pacing is very slow. Viewers may have a hard time accepting that the killer is projected as a stronger character than the victim's brother. And the bit about the mother of the victim's reaction to the killing stretches credibility.

Revenge or forgiveness -- what will come of a cold-blooded murder by a 17-yr old member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) against an unsuspecting young Catholic man in 1975 Northern Ireland? Fast forward to modern-day Ireland 25 years after the calculated shooting. The killer (Alistair Little played by Liam Neeson) has been released from prison and is en route to a meeting with the young brother (Joe Griffin played by James Nesbitt) who helplessly witnessed his older brother's killing.

While the story is fictitious, it is based on real-life experiences in the lives of Alistair Little and Joe Griffin during the turbulent '70s in North Ireland and the ensuing years. This powerful drama starts slowly and builds to a chilling climax with both actors giving strong performances. Without giving away any more of the story, it's fair to say that the plot is not as predictable as it might appear at times. It's thought-provoking and suspenseful.

The director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, brings his talent for eliciting "spot-on" performances from talented actors in this film as he did in his classic portrayal of Hitler's last days in his command bunker in Berlin -- in the German-language film DOWNFALL (titled DER UNTERGANG in German). In that film, some of Germany's finest acting talent shone under Hirschbiegel's keen, incisive directing, as do Neesom and Nesbitt in this one.