$11.98  In the Name of the Father - DVD |
$15.98  Michael Collins - DVD |
$17.99  Bloody Sunday - DVD |
$13.48  The Field - DVD |
$17.98  Hidden Agenda - DVD |
 [Larger view] | The Boxer (Collector's Edition)
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Average user rating:  | |
| Film and actors are totally winning | |
| A brilliant actor in chronically off-putting roles, Daniel Day-Lewis turns in his most accessible performance to date. As the title character, he's local boy, Danny Flynn, released from jail after 14 years and now coming back to his old Belfast neighborhood. It's not an easy return considering that he's no longer chummy with his IRA roots and that he's still has a yen for his former girlfriend Maggie (Emily Watson) who happens to be the local IRA chief's daughter. *** Director and co-writer Jim Sheridan has constructed a complex film running on three distinct courses: the IRA, Danny's boxing, and the love story between Danny and Maggie. Each are remarkable on their own, but intertwined together, they become even more powerful. *** Although it gets the least screen time, the love story is especially wonderful. Daniel Day-Lewis and Emily Watson reunite their characters in such a careful, intense manner that you're literally holding your breath watching them. It's absolutely exquisite. | |
| What a guy | |
| Daniel Day-Lewis must be the most versatile film actor in the world. He looks like a different person in almost every film he makes. I assume that's the real Day-Lewis in this flick about the rebellion in Northern Ireland, revenge and absolution. His romantic interest, Emily Watson, puts in a good performance too. Day-Lewis looks a lot different than he did in "Gangs of New York", "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", "My Left Foot" and "Last of the Mohicans" but he is just as compelling in his performance. I thought this movie degraded a bit at the end with its somewhat Hollywood finale, but otherwise I enjoyed it. If you like substantial filmmaking, good acting, great drama, unfamiliar vistas and a good story, you'll enjoy it too. | |
| A Day-Lewis in the life | |
| This film passed through our shores largely unnoticed, which is a shame, because Jim Sheridan's third foray with Daniel Day-Lewis is as capable and rewarding (if not as technically brilliant) as their first two ("In The Name Of The Father", "My Left Foot"). For one thing, the direction and editing is superb. There are a number of deleted scenes that probably should have been left in to complete the lack of continuity between some of the characters' relationships; particularly the prison scene between Maggie and her husband (they talk about 'prisoner's wives' but we never see the prisoners). That being said, the score is also a bit weak at times, but the film looks crisp and clear, the sound is flawless, and the commentary (particularly Sheridan's) is worth sitting through at least once. Day-Lewis (recently robbed of a much-deserved Oscar for "Gangs Of New York) is in top form here; thoroughly believeable as Danny "Danny Boy" Flynn. Emily Watson and Brian Cox are reliable as always, but from start to finish, this is Day-Lewis' show. |
