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Intermission
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 9 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Crime | Drama
Written by: Mark O'Rowe
Directed by: John Crowley
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 19, 2004
DVD: October 19, 2004
Running Time: 106 minutes, Color
Origin: Ireland
Summary
RATING: R for pervasive language, some sexual content and violence
Starring Colin Farrell, Shirley Henderson, Kelly Macdonald, Colm Meaney, Rory Keenan, Laurence Kinlan, and Cillian Murphy
A raucous story of the interweaving lives and loves of small-town delinquents, shady cops, pretty good girls and very (very) bad boys. With Irish guts and grit, lives collide, preconceptions shatter and romance is tested to the extreme. (IFC Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Boy A Is Anybody There?
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
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...
San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
A breed apart from anything coming off the Hollywood assembly line or, for that matter, from the saccharine romances Britain has lately produced.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The first Irish creation I've seen in ages to pull off the high-difficulty feat of trafficking in grit, drollery, and emotion without turning to blarney as a crutch.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
So full of pep you can't help surrendering to its creative energy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
That it succeeds is some kind of miracle; there's enough material here for three bad films, and somehow it becomes one good one.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
John Crowley’s film is high on its own briskness, and its glances at Irish backstreet life land it securely in the terrain that was mapped out by Stephen Frears’s “The Snapper” and “The Van.” [5 April 2004, p. 89]
Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
Stupid camera shenanigans aside, theater veteran Crowley deftly directs his large, stellar cast, and playwright-cum-screenwriter Mark O'Rowe serves up a wild knot of character arcs pitched somewhere among the neighborhoods of Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and Danny Boyle.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Irish playwright Mark O'Rowe, who wrote the script, has an admirable sense of dramatic proportion that suits his intertwining stories; theater director John Crowley, making his film debut, has a sure hand with his actors; and an excellent cast enlivens this web of romantic and criminal intrigue, set in a gray suburb of Dublin. R.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Very, very funny, thanks to a lively first script by Mark O'Rowe, who has a good ear for earthy dialogue and a sense of life's absurd little synchronicities.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
It’s tempting to summarize this Irish picture as a working-class version of "Love Actually," and indeed, the hardscrabble lives of most of its amorously unfulfilled characters go a long way in making it a whole lot less emetic than Richard Curtis’s hugfest.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Could fairly be described as a Robert Altman ensemble movie without the flab, or "Magnolia" with a mean streak and bigger laughs.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
If Intermission isn't profound, it's got boisterous humor and energy, with U2's rollicking "Out of Control" leading the charge. Given the grimness of many Irish tales, Intermission represents less of a pause than a burst into a fresh direction.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Intermission is like a creme brulee, invigoratingly grainy when you bite into it but sweet and soft underneath. Director John Crowley and writer Mark O'Rowe infuse this Irish crime drama with such adrenaline that you don't realize how lightweight it is until after it's over.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Here, love and violence are random, everyone's a fool for love, and tomfoolery often has a shocking twist. And every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The film's uniformly excellent performances are a delight, and fans of Irish actor Farrell (whose pitch-perfect American accent has served him well in Hollywood) can hear both his natural inflections and his singing voice.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo
A sort of low-down, dirty-faced Irish cousin of "Love Actually," the glossy smarm replaced by a jittery raunchiness.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
"Love, Actually" meets "Trainspotting" in Intermission, an edgy Irish romantic comedy that deftly juggles a dozen interconnected story lines.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
It's surprising that so much material, so many moods, and such an interesting cast end up making such a small, unmemorable splash.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Like many stylish, whipcrack American and British indies made in the wake of Quentin Tarantino and "Trainspotting," the film gets off on the same anything-can-happen storytelling brio, which at least keeps things lively. But without any resonant characters or ideas, it's all empty calories.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Beyond that surface grit, Intermission is still a fairly saccharine collage of self-redemptive gestures and happy endings that, true to its title, only fitfully compels.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
A black comedy that some viewers may take as an assault. The disconnect between the realism of its violence and the near-slapstick tone of some of its comedy is too much to be framed within one movie.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole
It's a bright, busy imitation of independent moviemaking. But it's hardly an independent film. Hopefully, next time out, director Crowley, a promising storyteller, will find his own story to tell.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
In manipulating its many disparate characters to bump into each other and set plot lines in motion, Intermission walks a fine line between clever and contrived, with the scale tipping more often toward contrived.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
Like a loud and intermittently charismatic drunk at a dreary dive bar, Intermission grabs your attention, but in no time you're looking for the nearest exit.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Turns out to be a tedious and under-inspired comedy.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Unfortunately, this latest effort is so mean-spirited and nasty that you wish Farrell hadn't bothered.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Pat C. gave it a2:
Profile of the segment of Irish society unable to construct sentences without using four-letter words. That tends to limit the characters' ability to articulate their negativity, makes them one-dimensional, and leads to other problems that renders the film nearly unwatchable, in spite of a compelling opening scene.
pj o. gave it a10:
Its brilliant<./P>
Ella M. gave it a 7:
A fast-paced look at several interconnected suburban Dubliners, both in interior vulnerabilities as well as harder exteriors. Funny more than serious, this dramedy could be set anywhere in view of blue-collar lifestyles, though it wouldn't be as good set elsewhere. I liked the ADHD cinematography and there's enough action to keep a fast pace. What I liked most about this movie is the characters are not always likable, and there is no lesson or moral shoved down our throats. Though it clearly has an end, it isn't prettily packaged and tied with a big bow. The film opens with a very literal bang, but ultimately the characters are infinitely more interesting than the plot and the ensemble cast performs tremendously making the sum worth far more than the individual pieces. 7/10 for a good bit of fun.
Rosey M. gave it a 9:
One of the best movies I have seen in a while. Give it a chance and you'll be surprised.
Cameron S. gave it a 7:
[***PLOT REVELATIONS***] Intermission is a movie in touch with its requisite Celtic soul and is a film filled with many characters, reality television, plot devices, twists, moustaches, brown sauce, and unpleasant fun. It is a strangely acceptable, pulpy, inspired, intertwining black comedy set in Dublin. What I could figure out with the plot and the characters: John (Cillian Murphy) & Oscar (David Wilmot) have horrible jobs at a supermarket. They robbed a truck full of brown steak sauce a few months back and the put the sauce on everything. John just broke up with his girlfriend Deidre (Kelly McDonald), who is now going out with Sam (Michael McElhatton): a balding, married middle-aged man. Oscar is in longing for a woman, and painfully masturbates to porn. So he and now-lonely John go to a mature club in the film's funniest scene. He meets Noeleen, who is married to Sam and is real rough in the sack. John, now seeking vengeance against Deidre for going out with another guy has set up a burglary with the angry Irishman, Lehiff (Farrell), in which they will take Sam to a bank and hold Deidre hostage. Assisting is an unemployed bus driver, whose bus was flipped over with Deidre's sister, Sally on board, who is starting to grow a moustache, it is no Burt Reynolds, but it's there. Also, Detective Jerry Lynch and a renegade television documentary director, who wants to see more reality in his routine job that involves stock-still rabbit races. So he and the detective go on a spree of police beating and pestering of drug dealers. Eventually they are lead into a chase with Lehiff that has a superb black Irish moment. A particularly lively scene that I liked is when Oscar seeks out an easy lay in the mature nightclub. It's comic not only because they are the only ones under 40 there, but also because of the approaches the older women have towards them. Intermission's interweaving of the distinctive parties comes from an obvious service of Tarantino-esque but still remains true to itself. It is an inspiration that comes from the most inspired and influential film of the 1990's, "Pulp Fiction." And while no out-chronology, interwoven film has yet to touch it, Intermission shows exactly why "Pulp Fiction" was such a landmark film of contemporary cinema and such a great impact on every single film since then. It also shares similarities with last year's romantic epic, "Love Actually," where there were a dozen of romance stories that all come together at the end. But instead of saccharine, director John Crowley and writer Mark O'Rowe have carefully put everything onto two slices of bread and out came a delicious sandwich, with lots of brown sauce to go on top of it.
Preston F. gave it a 9:
A first rate twisted tale.
Kevin M. gave it a 5:
Had its moments but essentially was suprisingly tedious and boring. I expected great things.
