'The Wind that Shakes the Barley': My kindgdom for a subtitle

It's probably not the best to choose a title line/headline that makes me look stupid. But alas. Watching 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley' (trailer), I found myself wishing that I was at home at could put the captions up because for the first five minutes I understood hardly a word and throughout the film I think I missed things because the accents were so strong that my American ears had a hard time comprehending. Also the fact that I had to pay close attention because I kind of felt like there was going to be an exam at the conclusion. It had the feeling of those type of European films (mostly British, although it would be bad to use to equate an Irish movie to anything British) that American doesn't have which are actual histories and not a sexed-up re -imagining of history.

Where the movie excels is in its deft handling of the complexity of the political situation that forms the backdrop, in which it goes directly from the Irish War of Independence to the Irish civil war as seen through the eyes of two brothers. The movie captures the complexity of this struggle and the moral ambiguity of violence by presenting us with a worthy fight against the Brits and then a more questionable civil war. Although director Ken Loach seems to have more allegiance to one side (I won't bog myself too much in the conflict in this little space), he shows the flaws on both sides and in the end I saw the heroism and the repugnancy of both sides. It also features a pretty spectacular performance by Cillian Murphy, who has finally found a movie where he lives up to his promise. He got rave reviews for his role in Breakfast on Pluto, but I found it gimmicky. Before now his standout role to me was still 28 Days Later, but here he manages to pull of such strength from a less than dominating stature and a character who begins so small. He's really the heart of this movie and we see in him how a smart and compassionate man can be driving to the worst things imaginable because of repression.

My suggestion is to catch it on DVD. You'll miss the lush Irish countryside and the always preferable opportunity to see something on the big screen, but it's the type of movie that would benefit from being able to take a break and perhaps use those subtitles. That way maybe you'll realize who Cillian Murphy's brother is long before I did.

Grade: B+