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THE STAR, Friday November 3 2006 43
ON A ROAD TO NOWHERE
THE unusual movie. Red Road, tells
the story of Jackie (Kate Dickie) who
works as a CCTV operator.
Each day she watches over a small
part of the world, protecting the people
living their lives under her gaze.
One day a man (Tony Curran)
appears on her monitor, a man she
thought she would never see again, a
man she never wanted to see again.
Now she has no choice, she is
compelled to confront him.
Forgive us our sins
AN UNHINGED Protestant minister
returns to his backwater hometown to
clear it of sinners — starting with his
own family.
Preacher
Gabriel
(Matthew
Macfadyen) returns home like the prodi;al son to a fictional Northern Irish vilage called Middletown.
He finds the town's inhabitants given
over to vice and sin via illegal business
dealings, cock fighting and patronising
the local pub more than the pulpit.
Determined to save the souls of
his flock, he sets about imposing
a new order — and first port of
call is his father (Gerard
McSprley), brother Jim
(Daniel Mays), and Jim's
heavily
pregnant
wife
Cert: I5a
items such as etiquette training
rodeo footage and a particularly
funny 'interview' with a feminist
group.
Though you have to watch carefully
to figure out in which parts they are
using actors and the scenes where the
people heS interviewing are real.
It all makes for many cringeworthy
scenes which are also side-splittingly
funny — one of the funniest films I ve
seen this year.
*****
Running time:
Starring...
Matthew Macfadyen, Daniel
Mays, Gerard McSorley
GENRE: Drama
Caroline (Eva Birthistle).
However, Gabriel's godly intentions
and religious fanaticism mask a dark
and malevolent heart with sadistic and
psychotic tendencies.
Gabriel's mission sparks off major conflicts within his family and the wider
community, as his increasingly fanatical
behaviour wreaks devastating consequences.
Verdict: Middletown is a chilling
movie that reflects on a depressing
time in Ireland when religious
fanaticism ruled communities
with an iron fist.
Macfadyen is impressive as
the seriously unhinged Gabriel,
and there's excellent support
1
from the Irish cast.
At times unbearably tense and
deeply shocking, Middletown
won't be winning any 'feel-good
movie of the year' titles but
this is unquestionably one of
the best Irish
films
released
this year.
Director: BRIAN KIRK
I I I ! N A T I O N A L CONl
The Snowman Movie
Live Concert \\-niii :nn</ Oovic
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•il f l j ! .
>pm/7.30pm
Friday 5 January 2007 5.30pm/8pm
Orchestra of The National Concert Hall
Michael d'Arcy leader • David Brophy conductor
Craig Doyle narrator • Spotlight Stage School
Devin O'Shea-Farren boy soprano
Tickets: €18 Adults, €14 Children
Family tickets available
Produced in association with Joseph Lloyd Productions
AVAttABtf
movies
actress Eva Birthistle's star is on
the rise and she's got the awards to prove it
RETTY and petite
Irish actress Eva
Birthistle is having a fabulous
year both personally and professionally.
P
Last February the blonde
Dubliner was voted joint winner
(with Kate Winslet) for British
Actress of the Year Award at the
London Film Critic's Awards.
She scooped the award (or at
least half of it) for her winning
portrayal of Roisin, an Irish
Catholic teacher working in
Glasgow who falls in love with an
Asian Muslim in Ae Fond Kiss.
"I was absolutely delighted
but Kate was probably raging," Eva was reported^
to have said at the,'
time.
"Actually, Kate didn
even show up so
have no idea how
she felt."
Eva also won
the
Best
Actress title
at the Irish
Film
and
Television
Awards
(IFTAs)
for her
performance
in the
by Annette O'Meara
by Ken Loach who won this
year's Palme d'Or at Cannes for
The Wind That Shakes the
Barley.
She was also nominated in the
same category at the Scottish
BAFTAs and at the British
Independent Film Awards.
Eva was offered her first feature film, All Soul's Day by Alan
Gilsenan in 1997 which was
closely followed by work on
Peter Sheridan's Borstal Boy,
Saltwater for Conor McPherson,
The
American
alongside
Matthew Modine and Diana Rigg,
and Timbuktu again for Alan
Gilsenan.
This year she also had a
part in the critically
, acclaimed Breakfast on
Pluto, and in the
romantic
drama
Imagine Me and You.
She famously
- -dated Colin
-Jarrell
years
ago
(before he became superfamous) but refuses to talk about
him and is generally very media
shy.
This month sees Eva playing
one of the central characters in
dark
and
tense
drama
Middletown about a zealous
Protestant minister (played by
Matthew
Macfadyen) who
returns to cleanse his hometown
of sinners in the North.
Eva plays the minister's feisty
sister-in-law Caroline, who is
married to his younger brother
Jim (played by Daniel Mays) and
works as a barmaid in the local
pub.
VA has racked up
an impressive acting CV in the past
11 years since she
graduated from the
Gaiety School of Acting.
E
She worked on RTE's Glenroe
for three years before moving to
London six years ago.
There she secured work on
Holby City and Silent Witness.
She also had a small part Jimmy
McGovern's stirring docudrama
Sunday and an uncredited part in
Paul Greengrass' Bloody Sunday.
She also appeared in John
Strickland's TV drama Trust and
film roles included Saltwater,
Borstal Boy and Mystics.
Eva supported herself like all
good actresses — by waitressing.
"Whenever I wasn't working I
TOP PERFORMANCE: Eva plays a
blinder in dark drama Middletown
was waitressing — I didn't really
have a choice.
"I wasn't doing a lot of work
and I was living in an expensive
part of an expensive city," she
says referring to posh Netting
Hill in London.
But it looks like her apron is
well and truly hung up for good
now with roles in Hiddletown,
BBC's The State Within and she's
currently filming Nightwatching
in Poland — an extravagant look
at artist Rembrandt's romantic
and professional life.
She's also just finished making
The State Within which she
describes as a blend of The West
Wing meeting 24.
Born in Dublin Eva lived there
until she was 14, after which the
family moved to the North
where she encountered difficulties as a southern Catholic girl
attending a Protestant school.
"I used to get notes like 'Get
out you Fenian bitch'," she says,
an experience which she admits
toughened her up a lot — no
harm perhaps given that her
future chosen career.
All of Eva's undoubted professional success this year however
pales in comparison to the event
which will close a very successful
and happy 2006.
On New Year's Eve she will
marry her longtime boyfriend
Raife Burchell who is a session
drummer for many bands including The Lightning Seeds. Looks
like 2007 is certainly set to be
her year.
• Middletown Is now showing in cinemas nationwide.
also showing
Middletown
(limited, nationwide)
Director: Brian Kirk
Starring: Matthew Macfadyen,
Eva Birthistle
Reviewer: Michael Doherty
Running Time: 88m
Rating: *****
Classification: 15A
Movie star, me like!
Borat
Cultural Learnings of America to Make
Benefit Glorious People of Kazakhstan
(nationwide)
Director: Larry Charles
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Pamela
Anderson
Re^ewer: Michael Doherty
Running Time: 82m
Rating: *****
Classification: 16
Plot A TV reporter from Kazakhstan
travels to America for some cultural
insights.
Venfict Forget the awful Ali G
Indahouse, with his latest movie,
Borat: Cultural Learnings of
America to Make Benefit Glorious
People of Kazakhstan, Sacha Baron
Cohen has delivered a comedy gem.
You have to admire the jockey's neck
of the guy as he unmercilessly takes
the mickey out of his host country.
The plot (such as it is) has reporter
Borat travelling across the "US and A"
to learn about America and marry
Pamela Anderson (don't ask). Along
the way he insults just about every
group (feminists, street gangstas,
Jews, gays, Southerners) and barely
manages to escape with his life when
he mangles the national anthem at a
local rodeo. It would ruin things to
give away too much, but one
sequence, reminiscent of Alan Bates
and Oliver Reed in Ken Russell's
Women in Love, will have the
audience on the floor with laughter.
Celebrity desert island DVDs
This week's castaway is actor
Liam Cunningham
His latest film, The Wind That Shakes The Barley
(Pathe), is currently available to buy on DVD
1 Apocalypse Now. Brando's big speech
was my audition piece for acting school.
2 The Godfather series: A no-brainer really;
perfection on celluloid.
3 Jeremiah Johnson: Me and my da watched it one night. It was a
father/son thing.
4 Un Coeur en Hiver. What Hollywood couldn't make in a million
years.
5 It's a Wonderful Life: Frank Capra always manages to batter the
cynic out of me with this one.
Plot A zealous minister returns home
with a mission to clean up his own parish.
Verdict Traditionally, a tale about religious oppression set in a rural Northern Irish
milieu would have one reaching for the service revolver. Too often in the past, this
particular genre has been the graveyard of good sense and a haven of bad art.
Thankfully, Kirk and his team are too skilled as filmmakers to fall into that trap, with
the result that Middletown is one of the finest films to emerge from Ireland in many
years.
Beautifully shot in a gothic style by Seamus McGarvey, Middletown is the story of
a zealous minister (Matthew Macfadyen), who returns from the missions to take
over the pastoral reins of his home village from easygoing Mick Lally, much to the
delight of his father, Gerard McSorley, and his brother, Daniel Mays. Soon, however,
they realise that the new man is now on a mission to stamp out all the perceived
vice in the region, even if it means turning his family and friends against him.
Wellwritten by Daragh Carville, Middletown is a superbly acted and beautifully shot
drama Indeed, feature film debutant, Kirk, frames and lights every shot with skill
and precision redolent of the great Terence Davies. Watch out for this guy.
A Good Year
(Nationwide)
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Russell Crowe, Albert Finney
Reviewer: Michael Doherty
Running Time: 118m
Rating: *****
Classification: 12A
Plot A high-powered London broker
finds himself seduced by a French vineyard.
Verdict Following their successful collaboration on Gladiator, Scott and Crowe are back
in tandem for this slightly (!) more leisurely tale. Based on Peter Mayle's adventures in
Provence, A Good Year finds Crowe playing a high-powered London broker whose life
takes a huge turn when his uncle (Albert Finney) dies and leaves him an idyllic property
in France. Predictably (and this is the film's big problem), our man has to decide
between the rat race, where he is surrounded by unscrupulous businessmen, and the
vineyard, where he is surrounded by local French lovely, Marion Cotillard. No prizes for
guessing which he chooses. Though it's well shot and well acted (Finney also scores
well), A Good Year is also very, very slight. Crowe is fine at romancing Gallic crackers,
but his attempts at knockabout comedy are decidedly less successful.
(
I Mi
, i
To mark the release of A Good Year, Fox
has given us 5 picnic sets and 5 picnic
blankets to give away this week. Each set
includes a picnic rucksack with wine
carrier, cutlery set, branded napkins, plate
set and two glasses. Just answer the
following question and send your answer, on
a postcard with your name and address, to:
MovieGuide/ Good Year Competition, TO
Box 1480, RTt Dublin 4.
Question: What was the name of the
character portrayed by Russell Crowe in
Gladiator?
*****Classic
44 RT£ GUIDE
IJ
*****Excellent
*****6ood *****Fair
*****Tragic
26
News Letter, Friday, November 3, 2006
Arts
in association with
www.belfasttoday.net
Game
Central
GAME OF THE WEEK
NEED FOR SPEED CARBON
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Racing
Price: E4939
TURBO-charged racing on the city streets and in precarious
canyons.
Fancy a free-roaming city for you to get your teeth into,
bigger than that seen in Need For Speed Most Wanted?
You've got it, and its yours for the taking, as you race for
block-by-block control by taking down rival crews on their
turl
But youl need to teave the streets to battle their bosses in
the canyons outside the urban centre, which is where
Carbon really comes into its own,
Al-new Canyon Duel and Drift race modes prove to be the
ultimate test of skill and nerve in this series, where one
wrong turn could cost you more than the race.
Thts is gorgeous, adrenalin-packed racing at its fastest and
you cant afford to ignore this sumptuous, super-charged
spread that EA have laid before us!
Rating: -****
MORTAL KOMBAT: ARMAGEDDON
Platform: PS2 Genre:
Fighting Price: E2999
The Mortal Kombat series has spawned
numerous fighting trttes in a history spanning
wel over a decade, with varying degrees of
success.
Thankfully, Armageddon marks a return to the
upper echelons of over-the-top beat 'em up
action for PS2 fans. With the most complete MK
roster ever, including nearly every character
from the Mortal Kombat universe (past, present
and future) and a revolutionary Create-A-Pighter
mode, this is B<e manna from heaven for fans of
the franchise.
Not onfy that, but the Create-A-Fatafity mode tets
gamers create their own custom fatalities by
stringing together a wealth of attacks via a series
of button combos. Those that then prove worthy
can take their very own death moves onfine to
showcase to the world - Kreative Killing you
might say!
Rating: ****..BUZZ! JUNIOR: JUNGLE PARTY
Platform: PS2 Genre: Puzzfe
Price; £24.99
Want to give family gatherings a Buzz this
Christmas? We're approaching the party
season, and there's no doubt that family
interactive experiences like the Buzz! series on
PS2 wi be bringing relatives round the TV and
then to blows over the festive period, so let1 s be
thankful that developers have thought to include
the kids, too. Buzz! Junior: Jungte Party moves
away from the quiz-show host styte of the more
grown-up versions, preferring to concentrate on
simple reflex-driven gameplay, a cheeky Buzz!
sense of humour and a heavy dose of fun.
Despite the simplified timing or colour-based
stimuS for gameplay that wiH capture kids'
attention for hours, if s difficult to know who will
have more fun, them or the parents. And, after a
sherry or seven, it's just as hard to know who
might emerge victorious! Great stuff.
Rating: ***iV6
GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY
STORIES
Platform: PSP
Genre: Action
Price: £39.99
ASIM: BOOOFOKOVA
Swapping format, but never giving up
anything in quality, PS3 owners can now
continue their GTA adventure on the move,
slipping back into the 1980s where cream
jackets with steeves roied up and Bonnie
Tyler hair on men was cooL Think Miami
Vice, with attitude and you're there. And
what a treat this is - an entirety new storyfine
and selection of missions for you to romp
your way through in Vice City, where the
vibe is glamour, power and corruption...
Graphically, these games dazzle like few
others on the PSP screen and you could be
forgiven for thinking your PS2 had shrunk in
the wash. If s as engaging and addictive as
ever, and a sure-fire reason for missing your
bus stop. Get it and get down to that retro
groove.
Rating: *-*** -'.THE BIBLE GAME
Platform: GBA
Genre: Refigion Price:
This game casts players as contestants on
a show with fast-paced, 'beat the buzzed
action, with hundreds of questions to
perplex the unenlightened about
inspirational Old Testament teachings. Think
carefully before buying.
Rating: *•*
GAMES CHART
1. Football Manager 2007
2. FIFA 07
a The Sims 2: Pets
4. Scarface: The World is Yours
5 Tom Clancys Splinter Cell: Double
& Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
7. Battlefield 2142
a Cars
ft Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
10. Championship Manager 2007
Leisure software charts compiled by
ChartTrack, (c) ELSPA (UK) Ltd
STRUGGLE: Matthew Macfadyen plays Gabriel Hunter, Middletown's tormented minister
OH RE FOf? M
News Letter, Friday, November 3, 2006
27
www.belfasttoday.net
MIDDLETOWN REVIEWED
example
Middletown: a place Chilling
of how religion
and violence clash
we have all been to
BY PHIL CROSSEY
yJ
LSTERiife in the 1960s,
religious fundamentalism and
a family tearing itself apart.
Perhaps unlikely subjects for a
feature film which has been
called the best Irish movie,
northern orIT southern, to be made in
recent years.
But Middletown is an insightful, and now
critically-acclaimed, look at the Northern
Irish condition with touches of gothic
horror and melodrama.
Written by Daragh Carville and directed
by Brian Kirk, both from Armagh, it
features Pride and Prejudice star and
MatthewMacfadyeninthe title role along
with a cast of notable actors.
The plot centres around the Hunter
family, and the dank, dreary backdrop of
Middletown.
Gabriel (Matthew Macfadyen) is told at
an early age that he has been "chosen by
God" and is sent off to train as a minister.
He returns home to Middletown many
years later tofindthat drinking and
gambling are rife, and that his brother,
Jim, is haplessly caught up in the
shenanigans.
Jim (Daniel Mays) is married to Caroline
(Eva Birthistle), who works in the local
bar and rejects Gabriel's attempts to
bring the pair back to religion.
The penniless couple are expecting their
first child, struggling to build their own
home and trying to survive in a world were
money, ratherthan spiritual guidance, is
what they need.
Meanwhile, Jim and Gabriel's father Bill
(Gerald McSqrley) is attempting to run
the family's failing business while he
battles with ill health and an impending
sense of his mortality.
Middletown is about the new minister's
battle with sin and how he must face his
own family on the front line.
"It felt like a western," Matthew
Macfadyen said.
As the stoic main character, one who
keeps his emotions to himself, Gabriel
Hunter not an usual role for the star.
But the idea of a minister from Northern
Ireland, one so out of touch with the real
world, was something he approached with
gusto.
"I didn't have any preconceived ideas, and
I didn't know about the Free Presbyterian
thing," Matthew said.
He relished playing a fundamental
preacher and, with the perfect accent, he
has struck a chord with Ulster audiences.
"People were saying I sounded just like
Ian Paisley but I didn't know, I didn't base
it on him."
Getting the accent right was challenging
for Matthew, and he worked hard on an
idiosyncratic Northern Ireland tone.
"It's different from a Belfast accent, that
Ballymena/Ulster-Scotstwang,"hesaid.
"It was driving me insane at the start, and
there was a point where I thought this is
going to be a disaster', but then it all
clicked."
With his voice sorted, Matthew focused on
portraying Gabriel in a way that didn't
descend into the stereotypical cinematic
preacher.
[email protected]
TEAM: writer Daragh Carville, director Brian Kirk and producer Michael Casey
fanatical faith that blinds one to the
actual complexity of human experience,"
he said.
"I certainly didnt want to make a point
about Northern Irish Protestantism; it's a
"It was an exciting challenge to capture
bigger story than that.
the character, and the journey he goes on,
without becoming hysterical," he said.
"It could be Protestant, it could be
"It's much more interesting trying to keep Catholic, it could be Islamic or whatever.
the lid on than lettingit all come out."
It's about any kind of fanaticism, any kind
While his great grandfather was a
of ideology that is life-denying."
prominent member of the Welsh church,
But Middletown is unmistakably
there were no immediate family reference
Northern Irish, in setting and in content.
points for Matthew to draw on.
Shot on location over Sve weeks last year
Onscreen, Gabriel may be dark and
in Glaslough and in the Ulster Folk and
foreboding, but Matthew said there was
Transport Museum, the fictional
good in him.
Middletown has a real presence on screen.
"I found him quite sympathetic, he's an
innocent a baby really: he has no social
"The two key themes are religion and
skills, he doesn't know how to cope with
violence and the connection between
his brother's wife or his father, but he
them," Daragh said.
adores his family," he said.
"Those are inescapable ideas when you
"Coming back to take over the ministry in
grow up in Northern Ireland. They're part
the town was a huge thing for him, it was
what he was put on this earth to do, but he of what shapes you."
Thefilmwarns against taking a simplistic,
realises that his dad and his brother are
the most evil men in the village. That's a
dogmatic, view to complex human
reflection on him and he can't deal with
problems.
H
it."
It's a controversial message," Daragh
Gabriel's mission to clean up the town
begins with his own family, and he turns to said.
"I'm
not saying Christianity is wrong but it
the Bible for guidance, setting his
is a cautionary tale about how a blackunshakeable moral compass from his
and-while ideological world view can be
inbuilt, and unworldly, sense of right and
wrong.
dangerous.
"There's no debate, no black and white;
"I'm not religious, I was brought up a
you'll either be saved or you'll burn in hell." Catholic but I'm not practising, but that
he said.
doesn't mean I'm anti-religion, the likes of
"It's a fundamental belief. It's deranged,
Martin Luther King and Gandhi have
but it's a great security for many people."
done great things in the name of religion.
For writer Daragh Carville, despite the
obvious signs, thefilmisn't just about any "It would be lazy to simply say all religion
is bad."
individual religion: "I don't think it's
Middletown opens in cinemas across
necessarily about Christianity as such. I
think it's about fundamentalism - a
Northern Ireland today.
BY PHIL CROSSEY
p. [email protected]
MIDDLETOWN, a new Northern Irish film that is
effectively a showcase for local talent, makes
uncomfortable viewing at times.
Not necessarily in a bad way, it is a compelling
drama with plenty of deft touches, but this is an
un flinching look at oar society.
Set hi the 1960s, it doesn't use the Troubles as a
narrative device, moreover it shows mindsets and
the seething sense of anger and alienation that
would lead to conflict.
But this is a chilling drama about violence and
religion, and how both can destroy lives.
The film begins with Gabriel Hunter as a young
boy being told that he is to be sent to the seminary.
The scene, deliberately, has the feel of a
courtroom sentencing.
Outside, his younger brother Jim gets into a fight.
Years later, having trained as a minister and
returned to his home town, Gabriel (Matthew
Macfadyen i is determined to restore order in the
midst of what he sees as sin.
With gambling and drinking rife, Gabriel goes
about trying to bring Middletown back to God, a
quest that puts him on a collision course with his
own family. Jim (Daniel Mays) is now married to
pub landlady Caroline (EvaBirthistle) and they
are expecting a child.
He work in the failing family business with the
head of the family, Bill Hunter (Gerard
McSorley).
With the bar opening on Sundays, and the
business selling illegal diesel, Gabriel's mission to
clean up the town begins with those closest to
him.
All of this happens against a permanently cold,
damp backdrop and the muddy streets of the
town itself provide such a tactile and effective
background that Middletown itself is almost the
film's main character.
Middletown is a very literal work, which is loaded
with imagery. It follows in the tradition of great
dramas where lack of communication and
empathy create the tension.
Everyone from Northern Ireland will recognise
the setting and the characters, who are willing to
criticise then- neighbour before they see their own
faults.
The characters look for salvation hi all the wrong
places and the lack of forgiveness leads to an
explosive conclusion.
On the face of it, this neo-western-cum-family
drama is an examination of the effect of religion
on people's lives.
But there are also strong overtones of how
fundamentalism, and the lack of empathy it
brings, can be an incredibly destructive force.
While the story deals with Protestantism, and
Middletown is very close to the Gaelic name for
Ballymena, there is enough ambiguity not to
identify any single faith and the message is
universal.
This is a lavish film that is beautifully shot and
bubbles with simmering tension all the way
through. The plot may jar at times, and lurch
toward unbelievably at the end, but this is a
parable as much as a narrative story.
The performances are outstanding from a
recognisable cast, who capture perfectly the
traits of hiding behind themselves, or behind a
twisted set of values.
It is by no means an easy work, but it sums up the
Northern Ireland condition better than any big
screen effort and for that it deserves to be seen.
Rating:
www.ireland.corn/theticket
Friday, October 20,2006
MITCHELL AND WEBB: 4 • PUMP DOWN THE VOLUME: 5 • THIS WEEK'S MOVIES: 7-9
2 COVER STORY
THE IRISH TIMES. FRIDAY. OCTOBER 20.2006
IT'S GRIM
There's a touch of the gothic about
Middletown, which follows the
disturbing machinations of a
demented minister in Northern
Ireland as he turns against his
family. Director Brian Kirk tells
Donald Clarke what drove him to
this robust take on fundamentalism
JDDLETOWN, an excellent new Gothic drama
detailing grim occurrences in the border counties,
has one - and possibly
only one - thing in common with the upcoming
Borat film. Had a gentile
created Sacha Baron Cohen's satire, in which a
fiercely anti-Semitic Kazakhstan! journalist bumbles around the United
States, then it might very well have
been subject to protests from the AntiDefamation League.
Similarly, had Middletown been directed by some lazy southerner, the
Protestant people of Northern Ireland,
no strangers to taking offence, might
have reached for their own placards.
Brian Kirk's film, which follows a demented minister as he attempts to
purge his village of sin, will do little to
dismantle the common perception of
the Ulster Protestant as an austere, humourless fellow with little time for
japes or jollity. Transylvanian villagers, rendered daughterless by local
vampires, have traditionally been
more inclined towards beer and skittles than the inhabitants of this sombre, fictional locale.
Brian Kirk from Armagh? Brian?
Kirk? Hmm? I suppose he has the right
to depict my people thus.
"We are in a time where Islamic fundamentalism is the subject on everyone's lips," Kirk says. "And, of course,
fundamentalism is embedded in my
own culture. I remember being in London when the tube bombs went off.
And there was talk about the foreignness of it all. But I grew up with all this.
I had the desire to demonstrate that
fundamentalists are not necessarily
monsters. They are not a different species to the rest of us."
Yet, though Middletown trades in an
unmistakably non-conformist school of
extremism, no mention is made of any
specific religious denomination. Nobody on this island, watching Matthew
Macfadyen's clenched performance in
the central role, could be in any doubt
as to which "community" the characters
belong to, but some Americans have
been confused. Jay Weissberg, reviewing the film in Variety, declared it "another addition to the growing list of pics
M
Those old-time preachers
HARRY POWELL IN THE NIGHT OF
THE HUNTER (1955)
depicting the Catholic Church as a haven for sadistic nut jobs".
Kirk casts his eyes to heaven.
"Oh, yeah, I know," he says. "And it
specifically says he is a minister. That
was annoying."
So why did Kirk and his screenwriter, the acclaimed playwright Daragh
Carville, decide to avoid any specific
mention
of the
characters'
denomination? Somebody named
Weissberg could, perhaps, be forgiven
for not quite understanding the significance of the term "minister".
"Well my interest is in the family
and how that is torn apart. I wanted it
to be accurate, but I didn't want to get
into making a film that was a critique
of any particular religion. I wanted to
show the negative impact that faith
can have on a family. Here is a guy,
who, as a child, is told you have a destiny to fulfil and, if you don't fulfil it,
you are a moral and existential failure.
How do you live with this?"
All the talk of oppressive religion
and rural misery may give the reader
the false (and terrifying) impression
that Middletown harks back to the
dreary agrarian realism that plagued
Irish television and cinema throughout
the 1980s. The film is, in fact, a darkly
humorous melodrama, whose depiction of the destructive power of faith
and accumulating sense of doom call to
mind such classic British horror films
as The Wicker Man and Witch/inder
General. There is also something of
Sexually repressed homicidal maniac
who marries then bumps off the
perennially doomed Shelley Winters
while seeking a fortune stolen by her
late husband. Robert Mitchum (left) one hand tattooed with the word
"love", the other with "hate" - seems to
be having a whale of a time.
ELMER GANTRY IN ELMER GANTRY
{I960}
In 1960 Sinclair Lewis's tale of a
lascivious, revivalist charlatan touring
the Bible belt in the 1920s was viewed
largely as a period piece. Four decades
later we look at Butt Lancaster's fiery
performance and think inevitably of Jim
Bakker, Oral Roberts and ail the other
regretful sinners who followed.
HAZa MOTES IN W7SE BLOOD (1979)
John Huston's disturbing film follows a
young man as he returns from the army
to embark on a life of quasi-deranged
evangelism. Though Brad Dourif s
centra! performance is excellent,
Houston, appearing briefly in flashback,
almost steals the show as the lad's
fire-and- brimstone grandfather.
SONNY DEWEY IN THE APOSTLE
(1997)
After fleeing the scene of a violent
crime, a troubled man starts a new life
as a Pentecostal preacher. Dewey,
played with characteristic solidity by
Robert Duvall, who also directs, bears
certain similarities to mean old Elmer
Gantry. But this is a more humane
character with genuine faith.
The Night of the Hunter about Kirk's
picture. But the original inspiration
came from a more surprising source.
"The sources of the gestation were
far away from here," Kirk says. "It
evolved in an organic way. Long before Walk the Line reintroduced the
world to Johnny Cash, Carville, who is
a great country music fan, was playing
those songs to me and talking about
the great gothic drama within them.
We suddenly thought we should make
a film that touched on those themes.
They are lurid. They are entertaining.
They are dramatic. And religion is at
the heart of them. At the same time we
were brooding on the subject of fundamentalism and those two things just
came together."
The result - for this writer the best
Irish film since Adam & Paul - focuses
on an unhappy reunion between two
siblings in the early 1960s. Macfadyen's Gabriel Hunter has, throughout
his life, been expected to succeed,
while his brother Jim (Daniel Mays)
has always been regarded as something of a loser. When Gabriel returns
from missionary work to take up his
home parish, he finds Jim married to
the daughter (Eva Birthtstle), now
pregnant, of the town's publican.
Gabriel fumes. The citizens, comically dissolute at first, are gradually
swayed by the preacher's sinewy rhetoric and begin to turn away from booze
and cockfights. But madness awaits.
"The idea is that Gabriel has only
been exposed to things that justify his
outlook to date and then he comes
back and things are not black and
white; they are grey. He is a virgin. He
can't cope with the fact that his brother's wife is pregnant. He suddenly
feels that the only way he can be true
to God is to cast out his family."
Macfadyen, recently Mr Darcy in
Pride and Prejudice, has a softness to
his personality that allows one to identify just a little with Gabriel "Yes. Mat-
irae
COVER STORY 3
TOE WSH T1MB. TODAY. OCTCWR 20. 2006
P NORTH
thew has real integrity as a person. I
wanted the audience to see him as a victim as well as an aggressor," says Kirk.
Brian Kirk, trim in regulation filmmaker black, exudes a staggering degree of confidence. Prompted to discuss the film's reception in America or
his recent successes directing for television, he will launch himself into an
evangelical monologue of some five
minutes duration. Fair enough. He has
come quite some way in his 38 years.
Directing films must, for a workingclass kid in Armagh during the 1970s
and 1980s, have seemed as realistic an
ambition as becoming an astronaut or
getting elected President of the World.
"I remember coming back from college and telling my dad I wanted to
make films and he said: 'Who do you
think you are?"1 he laughs. "And this
was a man who really loved cinema."
Seamus McGarvey, currently one of
the world's most admired cinematographers, was born in Armagh a year before Kirk and his success helped persuade the younger man that a career in
film-making might indeed be an
achievable aspiration.
"My father was a social worker and
my mother was a nurse," Kirk explains. "We came from a place called
Drumbreda in Armagh City, which
was quite a rough housing estate. I was
always totally into movies. When Seamus started to get out and about and
do things I thought: well there are no
excuses. It is possible. You can't say
people like me don't make films. A guy
from up the road is doing it."
Brian studied English literature at
the University of Edinburgh, before going on to take a course in film at Bristol
University. After winning best screenplay at the Fuji Film Awards, he made
a series of shorts, one of which. Here's
Johnny, was nominated for a Scottish
Bafta. A later vignette, 2001's Do
Armed Bobbers Have Love Affairs?,
written by Ronan Bennett, brought
him to the attention of the prestigious
CAA agency in Hollywood.
"Somebody at CAA saw it and they
brought me over and talked to me and
then a few weeks later I was walking in-
No middle ground: (top left) Brian Kirk and Mick Laity on the set of Middletown. Above and far left: Matthew Macfadyen as
Gabriel Hunter and Eva Birthistle (above centre)
to the tube station and the phone went
and they said: 'We have a job for you,'"
he says, still sounding slightly bewildered. The job in question was Brotherhood, a major series for the Showtime
network focusing on Irish-American
mobsters in Rhode Island.
'"Don't I have to meet somebody or
talk to somebody?' I said. Apparently
not. "They really like your stuff, so
come on over.' It was as simple as that.
Now working on that sort of show
does really test your stamina. Because
they will just pay overtime if they have
to, you can find yourself working
18-hour days. That really does test
your stamina when you are standing in
freezing water outside Providence for
five hours. That was useful for Middletown."
I imagine he had a warmer, betterappointed caravan on the Brotherhood
shoot. Low-budget productions such
as Middletown do not often provide
luxurious accommodation.
"Yes, and some days the set was so
cold there that the paint wouldn't dry
properly. You have no idea how cold it
was."
Which brings us neatly back to the
unremittingly morose depiction of rural Northern Ireland in Middletown.
Daragh Carville, author of fine plays
such as Observatory and language J?oulette, was, like his director, born in Armagh. There is a town named Middletown in that county. So, though the location of the drama is never pinned
down, it is not unreasonable to assume
we are in Ireland's orchard.
"There is a Middletown everywhere," he says. "We Googled it and it
transpires there are 240 or so of them
out there. So it is just a coincidence
that there is one in Armagh. It was just
meant to be a town somewhere in the
Ulster bible belt. What was more important was to get the look of somewhere as it would be in the early Sixties. And somewhere like that, because
they don't have much money, a lot of
things will be hanging around since
the 1950s and the 1940s."
And, yes, though a domestic audience will recognise the world of Middletown as poundingly Northern Irish,
the fictional town's proper location is
in the same movie universe as Briga-
doon, The Hotel Overlook and Manderlay. It bears the same dysfunctional
relationship with Ulster as the dark
fairy-tale environment of The Night of
the Hunter does with the American
south.
"Well there were two things I was
worried about when screening it in
America," Kirk muses. "I was asking
myself will this play as an Irish film or
an international film? And secondly
will they see it as a period film or a contemporary film? People in New York
were, in fact, arguing about that in the
audience. And that's great. Some said:
this is what's happening in the south
now? Somebody else said: this is
what's happening here - in Tribeca."
Kirk smiles as he ventures into a
new anecdote.
"But what's funny is that the biggest
gasp in the film happened when Gabriel throws this wad of money in the fire.
That got a bigger gasp than the murder." Throwing money on the fire?
Now there's an outrage that might really inspire the Ulster Protestant community to brandish their placards.
Middletown is released on November 3
_
ville), is fiercely protective of her
middle-aged son, Ronnie (Jackie
Earle Haley), a paroled sex offender whose return home sparks tensions in the community and harassment from an embittered ex-cop
(Noah Emmerich).
Ronnie is not the only cuckoo in
this nest; the other is desire, pas-
sionately expressed in the relation- ture or treated with conde;
ship that forms between Sarah and sion, and Field and Perrotta,
Brad after their first, playful kiss.
collaborated on the screenpla
Field skilfully intersects all vest them with artfully nua
these characters as he explores shadings of complexity
them, and their parallel paths grad- prompt several surprises.
ually - and inevitably - converge.
Even the introduction of th<
None of them is reduced to carica- screen narrator - a device tha
GIMME THAT
OLD TIME
RELIGION
MIDDLETOWN ****
Directed by Brian Kirk. Starring Matthew
Macfadyen, Daniel Mays, Eva Birthistle, Gerard
McSorley, Mick Lally, Bronagh Gallagher, Marie
Jones ISA cert, lim release, .89 min
BRIAN Kirk's striking first feature film
presents an unprepossessing picture of life
in a small Northern Ireland town at an unspecified tune, although the period trappings suggest the late 1950s or early 1960s.
Gerard McSorley plays Bill Hunter, who
runs the local garage with his younger son,
Jim (Daniel Mays). Daily life seems mundane there until the return of Jim's clergyman brother, Gabriel (Matthew Macfadyen), from missionary work in Africa to take
over the parish that is his hometown.
A prologue of juvenile malevolence set 15
years earlier establishes the violent undercurrents that will surface so devastatingly
when Gabriel takes it on himself to rid the
town of what he regards as vice and depravi-
ty. We get the measure of him when he
finds a mouse in a trap and grinds his shoe
into the animal's body. In a creepily ominous scene, Gabriel meets his brother's
pregnant wife (Eva Birthistle) and feels her
stomach, letting his hand linger there.
The minister's congregation has no idea
of quite how serious he is when, in his first
sermon, he says, "I'm going to be hard on
you, and hard on myself." Spouting fire and
brimstone, Gabriel is the personification of
fundamentalism, and through him the incisive screenplay by Darragh Carville implicitly anticipates the intolerance that will boil
over in this part of Ireland in years to come.
The scariest aspect of Gabriel is that he
absolutely believes that everything he does
is right, that it is part of his divine mission
on earth, and in that respect the film taps into the universality of conflicts rooted in religious zealotry. Director Kirk applies an appropriate, darkly muted colour scheme to
this grimly bleak environment, establishing
an eerie, pressure-cooker atmosphere that
recalls Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs.
Last seen as Mr Darcy in Pride & Prejudice, Macfadyen immerses himself in the
role of Gabriel with a chilling conviction.
The uniformly fine performances notably
include Birthistle's feisty portrayal of the
only person with the temerity to stand up to
his character in this calculatedly unsettling
psychodrama. Michael Dwyer
GA
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ROMANZO CRIMINALS CERT:
THREE childhood friends run amok in Rome throughout the
70s and '80s in this melodramatic crime flick.
The gangsters take over the seedy underbelly of the Italian
capital through drugs and prostitution.
With the help of corrupt politicians, who are in fact using
them as pawns, they all become corrupted by the world they
have created. The plot and action are both good, even if it
seems like a soap opera at times.
The two female leads are beautiful but their characters seem
a little under-developed — one is a prostitute while the other
Is a saint. There's also plenty of religious imagery to create a
connection between these ladies and the Madonna.
RED ROAD CERT: 18
SCOTTISH drama centred around a woman (Kate Dickie) who
works as a CCTV operator.
When Jackie (left) spots a man (Tony Curran) she thought
she'd never see on her cameras again, her whole world is
turned upside down and she quickly becomes obsessed with
his every move.
Director Andrea Arnold cleverly pieces together a sad
mystery that is revealed through some sickening events.
The acting is superb and although the pace Is slow in the
beginning, the long build-up is well worth it once the disturbing motives are revealed.
A bizarre but brilliantly and sensitively-made romp.
MIDDLETOWN CERT: ISA
RELIGION rips apart a small town and destroys a family in
this powerful drama set in Northern Ireland.
An overzealous young priest (Matthew MacFadyen) returns
to his home town but faces bitter opposition from his brother (Gerard McSorley) and his wife (Eva Birthistle) when he
attempts to "save" his flock.
Director Brian Kirk brilliantly shows how strong convictions can have horrific consequences.
Brilliant performances all round and watch out for Glenroe
legend Mick tally as an elderly priest.
A tight script and plot, along with good camera work
ensure an interesting and gripping watch.
the children
I complex vehiler beautifully
urs.
ose to fame as a
.1—_„ ..,u:.: —
A GOOD YEAR CERT: 12A
<S* «*
GLADIATOR star Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott
team up once again for this slow-burning rom-com.
Crowe seems out of place doing the tough-talker turned
sensitive soul.
After inheriting his uncle's vineyard in France, Max Is
forced to re-evaluate his life. Along the way he meets his
long-lost cousin and a gorgeous woman, who for the first
time make him want to change.
The stereotypes come thick and fast in this movie which is
based on a Peter Mayle book.
And this romp should be handled like wine tasters test new
wine — swished around and spat out.