Mister John

Set in Singapore, MISTER JOHN has a straightforward plot: Gerry Devine (Aidan Gillen) travels to Singapore to find out what happen to his dead brother, the proprietor of Mister John's bar. He encounters various people including John's wife Kim (Zoe Tay), his daughter-in-law Isadora (Ashleigh Judith White), and John's best friend Lester (Michael Thomas), and while doing so discovers something about John's life, which seems to Gerry to be idyllic, unlike his own life back home in London, where he has experienced marital difficulties with wife Sarah (Molly Rose Lawlor). Despite numerous opportunities to carve out a new life, Gerry opts instead to return to London. Directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy create a claustrophobic world of interior and Singapore night life - a suitable backdrop for a penetrating study of Gerry's indecisive character. Tormented by memories of the past, he cannot make up his mind in the present. The camera focuses intently on his facial expressions, suggesting that he is somehow imprisoned by his nature. On the other hand we can see why he should think like that - even though John had carved out a good life for himself in Singapore, the world of seedy bars, nighttime pickups and one-night stands does not seem in any way idealistic. Modestly budgeted yet sympathetically photographed with an eye for color both in day and night sequences, MISTER JOHN is an unexpectedly haunting film.

Honestly, there's not much going on in this film. It's one of those movies that you aren't missing out on anything if you don't watch it at all. If you do watch it, you will mostly feel like it had wasted your time. Not sure why someone on Wikipedia called this movie a thriller.

An evocation of a moment - to evoke a moment - to question this - and your - life ...sometimes the pain will show...even though you didn't want to reveal it, or you thought you didn't, but really you did...A spirit in this world...on reflection too many knowing looks in contradiction of the feelings ot tries to evoke...

This film is about grief, and being lost. It's not a badly made film, the subject matter while uneasy is something that other countries have to deal with a lot more than ours. Just because we are unfamiliar with it, or don't like it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It is well shot, has good acting and the music is spot on. It's the kind of film that may hold a mirror up to how one deals with relationships, and that may make people uncomfortable. As always, watch it and make your own mind up.

The Irish Film Board should be ashamed for producing a film like this. Not only was the acting horrific, from the full cast, but the narrative seemed like it was thrown together in the editing room. This film is on a similar level with 'The Room'.

In the IFB's defence, I suspect that the Singapore Tourist board had a hand up their asses. The unnecessary eroticism and prostitution made me wonder whether the country is trying to adopt South East Asias sex tourism as part of their national identity.

I don't question how they got their funding, I question the choice of directors and actors. The talent in Ireland is being wasted on this drivel.

I want my money back.