Five Minutes of Heaven (2009)

hyped garbage

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A Masterpiece!

The acting in this movie is really good.

The story of former UVF member Alistair Little (Liam Neeson). Twenty-five years after Little killed Joe Griffen's brother, the media arrange an auspicious meeting between the two.Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called it "very good at stating the obvious but fails to bring new insight to this age-old morality tale". That seems like a fair opinion to me. The film is good, topical, and Neeson is a great casting choice. But it does not seem to add anything new.Sadly, I am not sure if this film had much impact outside of the United Kingdom, because the Irish problem is something Americans are only vaguely aware of.

Remarkable interior acting; never caught him acting once! Amazing resources; 3-D characterization, turning on a dime, caught my breath more than a few times. I'm 79 years old,a stage director, still looking for greatness in acting; this is the first time I've ever bothered commenting on any actors other than my own students. That last scene is unforgettable. Nesbitt is a wonder! If I've seen him in motion pictures before, he never registered. This role gives him a chance to stun. Great joy watching him. Having acted myself, I can't imagine how he achieved the depth of his characterization. Technique? Some. Style? Lots. Method? How about lightning flashes from one method to another, seamless. Stellar! I'm better for watching him in this flick; too bad I don't remember him from others. But I'll be watching!

Having watched many over dramatized movies and countless documentaries about the conflict in Northern Ireland, I approached this movie with trepidation..... Apart from a small dialogue about the tit for tat killings (very true) the movie stayed away from politics and focused on the aftermath. Liam Neeson is an incredibly honest actor, I can't remember ever seeing him over act and that is what made this movie and his role amazing! James Nesbitt came across extremely strong but perhaps that's how it was scripted and it balanced the two main characters very well without them coming face to face for most of the movie. Another standout is Anamaria Marinca, she played her role perfectly.This movie is outstanding, will get you thinking and most of all, has a very important message about young minds being manipulated!

"Five Minutes of Heaven" (2009) is a film of noble intentions dealt with as with the lightness of a mastodon's tread. Did it get its Sundance Festival prize for its moral potential or for what was actually realized in this movie? More to the point of the movie itself: whatever became of Mr. Liam Neeson the artist? Whatever became of his depth and nuancing as an actor? Here's a man who began as a genuine, home-bred thespian and became an international star, and in the process seems (to this reviewer at least) to have forfeited the depth and silent thunder he once possessed and evoked. In one scene (I won't say when) the character whom Neeson plays falls to his knees in a busy city street & looks skyward -- in a scene of crucial tragic depth & absolute dramatic pivot – and yet Neeson carries this moment off with all the nuance of a bird watcher looking for a pigeon cooing in the city.Has Neeson become just another Irish pretty boy of the cinema – too sensitive to live, too strong to die? And ohh how he must bring in the female box office! (now that Harrison Ford is his granddad's grandad's age sadly stuttering through pre-fab roles). While his counterpart, James Nesbitt, is effective; if, as ever, playing the same fine role of manic Irishmen caught up in "the troubles".In short, "Five Minutes" is ideal for the TOEFL classroom, for conflict resolution groups and for Irish Studies' classes. It is didactic. Thereby lies this movie's strength and weakness. It's all very "pointy-outy" (if you don't get the point the first time, the film will repeat it another dozen times). Sad that a film with such noble intentions should, in the end, be so pedestrian and prosaic. Or is that the point of "Five Minutes of Heaven"?