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Five Minutes of Heaven

EMAILPRINTIFC Films

Five Minutes of Heaven reviews
62
8.5 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Crime  |  Drama  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Guy Hibbert

Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegel

Release Date:
Theatrical: August 21, 2009

Running Time: 90 minutes, Color

Origin: UK

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Anamaria Marinca, Juliet Crawford, Niamh Cusack, and Richard Dormer

Lurgan Northern Ireland, 1975. A low level civil war has been underway, with the IRA targeting British loyalists and the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force exacting revenge on Catholics they claim are militant republicans. Alistair Little, 16 is the leader of a UVF cell, eager to be blooded. He and his gang are given the go ahead to kill a young Catholic man, James Griffin, as a reprisal and a warning to others. When the hit is carried out, Joe Griffin - the 11-year old little brother of the target - watches in horror his brother is shot in the head. Thirty years later Joe Griffin and Alistair are to meet, on camera, with a view to reconciliation. Alistair has served his sentence, and Peace may been agreed in N. Ireland, but unbeknownst to the production team, Joe Griffin, is not coming on the program for a handshake but to stick a knife in his brother's killer - live on air. (IFC Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

Variety Dennis Harvey

Powerhouse performances by Liam Neeson and James Nesbit make this an intense, ultimately moving tale.

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80

Time Out New York David Fear

When violence eventually rears its ugly head again, the effect is as anticlimactic as the movie’s title is misleading. Brief bliss is a red herring; there’s only a lifetime of pain left in such acts’ wakes.

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75

The Onion (A.V. Club) Sam Adams

Hirschbiegel fails to discipline his English-speaking cast, allowing Nesbitt so much rein with his caffeinated performance that sympathies shift to Neeson’s comparatively sanguine murderer.

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75

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The title of the overlong Fifty Dead Men Walking refers to lives saved by Sturgess' character, who is still in hiding years later.

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75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

On balance, it's a good movie but not a great one. Probably the only reason it's getting North American distribution is because of the involvement of Liam Neeson.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Biancolli

An imperfect but intensely human movie that ponders the aftershock of violence, could have been an exercise in overacted sappiness. Instead, it's as hard and uncompromising as remorse.

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75

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

A director whose breakthrough was the story of a madman's last stand has exceeded that feat with the story of an angry man's next step.

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70

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Captures the awful intimacy and the grimy, second-rate quality of the Northern Ireland conflict in resonant fashion.

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70

Los Angeles Times Gary Goldstein

Ultimately, Five Minutes of Heaven is stronger as a whole than its individual parts. It's a well-performed piece that perhaps required a more calibrated hand than Hirschbiegel's proves here.

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67

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A forceful Neeson and an even more intense Nesbitt (Bloody Sunday) both show their stuff and obscure the unrelieved pain endured by the men they portray.

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63

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Five Minutes of Heaven’reduces Northern Ireland’s troubles to a gimmick, but it’s an interesting gimmick, and the two men hoisted on its petard work at vivid cross-purposes. If nothing else, the film’s worth seeing as a demonstration of opposing acting techniques.

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50

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Based on a true story -- that never happened. That might explain why the film circles and circles its subject but never strikes dramatic pay dirt.

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50

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

A feature-length talkathon built on a sketchy premise, some unpersuasive psychology, a pinch of politics and strong star turns from Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt, the appeal of all those words runs out long before the director Oliver Hirschbiegel turns off the spigot.

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50

Village Voice Vadim Rizov

The production design is spot-on, but Hirschbiegel tries way too hard to create tension, making every occurrence--a record needle dropping, a car door slamming--an unsubtle potential bomb, fraying your nerves like a cheap horror movie.

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20

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Early scenes set up the tragedy, but the majority of Oliver Hirschbiegel's movie is set in a TV studio where the two eventually face each other, and the tension, unfortunately, quickly becomes stagey.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Deborah T gave it a9:
This was a powerful film that left me haunted.

Jose C gave it a9:
Great performances,well directed but uneven script.

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