“Five Minutes of Heaven” reduces Northern Ireland’s troubles to a gimmick, but it’s an interesting gimmick, and the two men hoisted on its petard work at vivid cross-purposes. If nothing else, the film is worth seeing as a demonstration of opposing acting techniques.
In one corner, we have Liam Neeson as Alistair Little, a real-life Irish Protestant who joined the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Forces as a teenager and has since renounced his violent ways.
On the other side of the ring is James Nesbitt (“Bloody Sunday”) as Joe Griffen, the grown brother of the Catholic man Little murdered back in 1975. The two are being brought together on a TV show whose shallow, chatty producer wants to know if “truth and reconciliation” are possible. Not bloody likely. “I’m going for revenge,” snarls Joe.
The first half-hour of “Five Minutes of Heaven” re-enacts the murder amid the apocalyptic landscape of ’70s Ulster, and it’s easily the strongest part of the movie. We feel the hatred of one group for another.
Young Joe (Kevin O’Neill) stood powerlessly by as his brother was shot to death, and the shame has poisoned his life. Nesbitt, never invested in subtlety to begin with, practically crawls out of his skin as the adult Joe, chain-smoking in the green room and alternately berating and venting to the TV show’s production assistant. What he has lived with the past 33 years is nothing compared with what he’s contemplating doing to Alistair when they meet.
Neeson, in stark contrast, plays Little with what appears to be eerie serenity. Then you look closer and see he’s just immobilized by guilt.
The two stars are equally moving, but the film frustratingly puts off their confrontation again and again. Screenwriter Guy Hibbert dances around the issues he raises — forgiveness the biggest of all — and by the time he comes to grips with them, the drama has turned both melodramatically pat and hard to swallow.
Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, “Five Minutes of Heaven” wears its wishful agony on its sleeve. It’s a movie “inspired by” two real men who’ve never met, and it’s moved to schematic pity by the thought of what might happen if they did.
“FIVE MINUTES IN HEAVEN.”
Not rated but contains graphic violence, language and chain- smoking. 1 hour, 30 minutes. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel; written by Guy Hibbert; starring Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt , Anamaria Marinca, Juliet Crawford, Niamh Cusack and Richard Dormer. Opens today at the Mayan.
