Truth & Reconciliation
Interesting film about the so-called Troubles in Northern Ireland centering on the affects of a single traumatic event in the past of the two central characters.
Their guilt is exacerbated by the perverse desire of Christians to blame a living scapegoat rather than face the grief in a grown-up way. The impossibility of Truth & Reconciliation and the general popularity of revenge is, perhaps, the most painful path for anyone to follow but there is no other path that leads to anywhere of any real value; the future being impossible to live in when one cannot bear one's past.
Essentially a two-hander between the superb performers Liam NEESON and James NESBITT, this is a clever satire on the pathology of victimhood - on both sides - and the struggle to escape it that is the only true salvation possible. The comedic centrality of the narrative helps make a very difficult subject bearable to watch. Indeed, it gives the drama depth and resonance along with the satire of the media's need to present audiences with emotional immaturity rather than grownupness: Like dissecting a frog without anesthetic to understand how it lives. Redemption was never so troubling to watch.
Masculinity here is defined as a reductive and self-destructive need for back-slapping from males who believe violence is the only answer in politics. And amidst all the inevitable self-pity there is a sense that a life has to mean something else what is it all for? Senseless killing here not only destroyed the lives of their victims but their own lives. But the reasons for this violence in this movie are taken for granted when they should be more fully explained. This is an outsiders' view of the need to put the past into the past and so does not explore its own issues as fully as it might since the message of the film somewhat conflicts with the reality on the ground in Northern Ireland.
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