Hidden Agenda - Secret défense

Largely forgotten today, the first of two films Ken Loach made about The Troubles generated headlines at the time for a nasty spat at a press conference between Alexander Walker and Loach. As the snappy title suggests it's the nearest thing Loach ever made to a conventional thriller, and although Loach is no Costa-Gavras or Alan Pakula it hold the attention.

Loach inevitably subscribes to the conspiracy rather than the cock-up theory of history, witness the speech that Thatcher's elevation was deliberately engineered rather than simply luck; and he puts a crass and patronising observation about the Irish in a high-ranking Tory's mouth.

A good cast rather surprisingly includes Mai Zetterling making a rare late appearance as an actor in a oddly small part.

I admit it - I'm smitten with Frances McDormand. She makes every male lead she plays opposite better by her presence. Doubt that? Look at how she elevated Brad Pitt's game in "Burn After Reading."

The rest of the acting and direction is noteworthy as well. Now about the writing.... Am I getting old, or is it really quite opaque?

Ken Loach has made a career out of directing movies about politically charged topics. A lot of his movies have addressed class issues in the United Kingdom, but he has also looked at foreign policy. One example is "Hidden Agenda", about an investigation into the murder of a human rights lawyer in Belfast. Loach not only indicts the British occupation, but also finds time to take a swipe at Margaret Thatcher's government.* While I was watching the movie I assumed that it was based on the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane. It turns out that the movie is a fictional story, but it still makes sure to show the sorts of things that had become commonplace in Northern Ireland. I read that Loach had the cast members meet with people who had gotten abused by British forces to give them an idea of what the movie was dealing with.

Ken Loach also looked at Ireland in "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", about Ireland's war for independence in the early 20th century. Both movies take unflinching looks at what the English did to the Irish for over 800 years. To be certain, "Hidden Agenda" features a scene that should give people pause in the era of the so called war on terrorism: a man sings a song that has the line "you take our land and call us terrorists for resisting". I recommend the movie. Other movies focusing on Northern Ireland that I recommend are "In the Name of the Father", "Bloody Sunday" and "Breakfast on Pluto".

*After Thatcher died, Loach proposed that her funeral should be privatized, since she would've wanted it that way.

The distinctly pedestrian and realist style to this little caper was quite refreshing as it avoided most clichés of the thriller genre like sexy protagonists and high energy gun battles etc etc to give something a little like a racy cigarette smoke-filled real-life documentary. The miry setting, in the midst of the sectarian wars of Ireland, and including within the tawdry bowels of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, also Republican bars, minor hotels, and humble households was most intriguing, but then the 'hidden agenda' plot panned away some distance from the psycho-realism onto a rather disappointing vein about incredulous or just uninteresting high level parliamentary dirty tricks, ho hum... Thatcher (of course), well not her exactly, anyway... It felt great in the main though, in the unique way the drama was directed, somewhat over the shoulder camera positions where the context is always in view, and conjuring easy naturalistic performances - with Cox doing a great turn as kind of big Yorkshire terrier. The story muddled its way along in a way that felt pretty convincing as a slice of real life in all its convolutions and routine failures of trust, up until the final segment which as I say pulled back I feel a little far, with its ambition to be a big Political thriller, somewhat betraying the best bit, the human narrative of the everyday fog of war and enduring terror that was no doubt an everyday reality for the citizens of northern Ireland.

Just great political drama. It takes place in 1987 Belfast. A human rights activist (Frances McDormand) investigating British brutality against the Irish, and a police inspector (Brian Cox) are investigating the murder of one of her colleagues. They find a huge conspiracy that leads to the highest people in government.

I know only the basics of the conflict in Northern Ireland, but I was able to follow the story. They shot on location and the accents are, at times, incomprehensible, but it actually adds to the movie. The movie looks grimy and bleak...as it should. The movie is VERY critical of England. McDormand and Cox are superb and the movie is very realistic...especially the ending.

Sadly, this movie bombed big in America. It came out before McDormand hit it big with "Fargo" and Cox before "In the Name of the Father". Still, this is well worth seeing. Don't miss it!