“Five Minutes of Heaven” is based on two real people, yet it is fictional. Screenwriter Guy Hibbert interviewed two survivors of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, then invented a conclusion to their situation.
One of the men is Alistair Little (played by Liam Neeson), who as a teenager in 1975 shot another man in his home. He was glad to murder; it gave him status in his group and a sense of accomplishment. Little was Protestant, the dead man Catholic.
The victim’s brother is Joe Griffin (James Nesbitt), who witnessed the crime and has grown into a nerve-jangled, bitter adult.
Hibbert listened to both men’s stories and wrote “Five Minutes of Heaven.” The first half of the film revolves around a planned reconciliation between the two men, which will be filmed for a TV program as it happens.
Little, having spent 12 years in prison, is now a lecturer and an expert on reconciliation techniques. He’s a smooth, calm man, although the personal nature of this particular reconciliation is more fraught than most.
Griffin, speed-talking and chain-smoking, doesn’t want to do the TV interview. He wants revenge. All the fancy talk about forgiveness is just so much touchy-feely, New Age blarney to him.
The strangely structured film continues after the TV interview sequences are over, but with less originality and urgency. It’s hard to top the opening sequences, too, which detail the 1975 killing.
Director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who did “Downfall,” tries to rachet up the tension in a movie that is essentially a great deal of dialogue. In fact, “Five Minutes” feels a lot like a stage play: more ideas than images, more talk than action.
And, like a stage play, it’s an actors’ showcase. Except for a brief role for Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca, the two leads (both of them born in Northern Ireland) dominate.
Neeson is appropriately quiet, but deft at suggesting the unease beneath his polished exterior. Think of the role as the polar opposite of his revenge-minded father in “Taken.”
James Nesbitt is not as well known as Neeson, but he has the juicier role here and he makes the most of it: shouting, sweating, pointing his cigarette like a weapon.
The movie’s message makes it a natural for “teachable moments” and the like, but the thing you’ll remember most is probably Nesbitt’s powerhouse performance.
“Five Minutes of Heaven” ½
Two survivors of The Troubles in Northern Ireland plan to meet for a TV interview: a reformed killer (Liam Neeson) and the brother (James Nesbitt) of a man he murdered. The movie’s more talk than action, with a somewhat tidy message, but the actors’ showcase, especially the overheated Nesbitt, can’t be denied.
Rated: Not rated; probably R for language, violence
Showing: Varsity
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