{image1}Irish director John Crowley's new comedy "Intermission" is one of those difficult films to peg. While it's an indie film with some great performances and some wonderfully witty moments, Mark O'Rowe's script often relies too heavily on paint-by-numbers characterizations.
The film has been a bit divisive in Ireland, where many are championing it as an Irish indie flick worthy of support. Others dislike the film and deride those who support it solely because it's home-grown.
The intermission of title is the temporary break that John (Cillian Murphy of "28 Days Later") suggest he and his girlfriend Deirdre (Kelly MacDonald of "Trainspotting") take. Unfortunately for him, during this time, she hooks up with Sam (Michael McElhattan), a married bank manager considerably older than her.
Meanwhile, Sam's wife Noleen (Deirdre O'Kane) and John both become miserably lonely. She tries to reinvent herself and hooks up with John's best mate Oscar (David Wilmot), who is trying to overcome some problems in the sack.
Shirley Henderson also appears as a jilted woman afraid to trust another man and Colin Farrell is a thug of the most brutal order. Colm Meany is a hard-edged cop who has made it his task to nab Farrell's character. But first he's got to get his desire to be a TV star out of the way.
There are so many characters and so many subplots, that it's nearly impossible to trace them all, although O'Rowe's script does a good job of keeping everything straight and preventing the viewer from being completely confused by it all.
{image2}His main problem is that with so many characters he can't really flesh them all out. So Meany's cop ends up being little more than a rote characterization and much the same is true for Farrell's tough guy.
Many of the love stories are touching and informed by the real-life pitfalls of romance and trying to keep relationships afloat.
It's hard to fault any of the performances. Meany and Farrell go above and beyond the call of duty attempting to bring to life their two-dimensional roles. MacDonald and Murphy make us care about what happens to them.
But, while we watch fairly intently for 90 minutes and we laugh at regular intervals, it's hard to feel fulfilled once it's all over.
While certainly not the bomb some are calling it, "Intermission" could perhaps have benefited from a more economical plot, which would have shaved out some superfluous stories and allowed room for the better ones to spread their wings.
"Intermission" opened Fri., April 30 at Landmark's Oriental Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
