Anton

I saw this at The Boston Irish Film Festival 2008. It has merit on all fronts. Gee, How many American movies started with €5,000 euro pack this punch?! The acting is exemplary and the direction while safe delivers when its called for. Mc Sorely is incredible and Fox in his first Lead ( I think) in a movie holds his own very well against him. The character he plays is very hard to get to grips with in the early scenes but once the movie gathered pace one could understand his mindset. The supporting cast (again unknown) deliver truthful performances often missing from films of this caliber and budget. There are places where it's budget is telling but the ambition and the sheer scale for little money has to be commended. The audience in Harvard were well impressed. African American, Irish American, Hispanic American. Seriously it was amazing coming as I do from an English heritage to see this cross section engage with an Irish Film on so many levels. At first I was terrified this is yet another Brit bashing movie but was pleasantly surprised by how focused it was on the family and how the conflict in Northern Ireland was purely a background to what is a gritty truthful movie.

Whilst credit must go to the filmmakers for actually getting Anton produced, sadly they have not done themselves any real favours by putting this story up on the big screen.

Whilst there are certainly moments in the film which work, overall it is simply a mess. Watching it, I wondered at times whether this was in fact an experimental avant-garde piece masquerading as a mainstream thriller. That seemed to be the only possible explanation for the missing plot points, lack of character motivation and general incoherence of the film. However, in truth, this is nothing more than a collection of scenes in search of a script review.

To give an example: at a mid-point in the film Anton escapes from prison. In the next scene he enters what seems to be an abandoned warehouse and takes a gun from a toilet cistern before being confronted and chased by two police officers. We have never seen this location before. It is not explained why there is a gun in the cistern or how Anton knew it was there. We do not know how the police tracked him to this location. We are simply asked to accept that this is so and move on. Apparently the film is based on the writer's own experience, so perhaps he knows the answers to these questions, but a simple review by an experienced script editor would have pointed out that its quite important for the audience to know these things too.

In short, there are suggestions that the filmmakers could do better work in the future, but as an overall piece of work this film is seriously flawed.

I don't know if this is the worst film ever made because I haven't seen them all, but it is certainly the worst I've ever watched by some distance. How Gerard McSorley ever became involved in this I'll never know.

I don't understand how anyone from Cavan could write a story so devoid of any understanding of where they are from. Set in 1972, perhaps intentionally, the film depicts a facile portrayal of Ireland's troubled past and does so in a way guaranteed to offend everyone who lived through that period.

This film was nominated for three IFTAs and, as an Irishman, for that decision I'm cringing. Jesus wept.

Wasn't expecting much from this, in light of the mixed reviews it received. I usually find that when some critics love a movie and some hate it, I usually end up hating it too. Not this time. For a start, it looks great. Best cinematography in an Irish film I've seen in years, more like David Fincher than anyone else. The plot / story is great too, keeps twisting and turning and the action never lets up. I thought the acting was top notch, especially the supporting roles. The brother, the wife and the little psycho IRA guy were all brilliant. I loved the score too. Only downside was that the time line jumped a little in the first twenty minutes and it was hard to follow what was happening when, but this didn't detract from the film at all. I can't see why some critics didn't like this film. I think a lot of Irish people are just have a blind spot for anything that relates to the troubles. Will probably do much better outside Ireland than it did here. I nearly didn't go to see this and I'm glad now that I got off my ass and made the effort. Well worth it.

I gave Anton a 10 rating despite a couple of misgivings. The sheer ambition of this movie is inspirational! Ambition, something sadly lacking in Ireland, just look at RTE, TV3 and the morons who run the country. I can't recall an Irish film which dared to compete with Hollywood action thrillers, Recent Irish Films (A film with me in it, Middletown, Adam & Paul, 32a, Garage etc) have been slow paced and better suited for TV. Sorry about the rant! The recreation of the 70's period in this movie is flawless, the score, cinematography and most of the performances are incredible. On the downside, the filmmakers tried to cram so much in that the film losses focus at points. Gerard McSorley does his thing to great effect lending tremendous weight to the production, but it's the supporting performances that are surprisingly good. With Anton, Irish Film is getting on track, (not back on track, because it was never on track in my opinion) What Ireland needs is more people working in the film industry with balls and before you say, what about movies like, In the Name of the Father, The Boxer, Michael Collins, Veronica Guerin etc, yes they were good, great even, but these films were made by Hollywood studios so can't be considered true Irish Films.