Five Minutes of Heaven

Name: Five Minutes of Heaven
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime
Released: August 21, 2009
Duration: 89 min
Rating: 62
Cast: Anamaria Marinca, James Nesbitt, Liam Neeson

2009

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Ratings

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7.9

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7.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Ratings

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FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN

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Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date: August 21, 2009

Starring: Anamaria Marinca, James Nesbitt, Liam Neeson

Summary: 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 aLurgan 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)… Expand

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 89 min

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Awards & Rankings

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Critic Reviews

Variety - Dennis Harvey

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

Time Out - 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. Read full review

The 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. Read full review

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. Read full review

Salon - Andrew O'Hehir

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

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. Read full review

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. Read full review

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User Reviews

DeborahT

Nov 17, 2009

This was a powerful film that left me haunted.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

JoseC

Oct 8, 2009

Great performances,well directed but uneven script.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

StevenF

Jun 2, 2013

Tension is perhaps a writer's best friend, reaching out to an audience is a tough task, not everyone will be pleased, but with tension there is always that sense of uncertainty, and where Five Minutes of Heaven succeeds in building tension, through a simple 'handshake' between two men, itTension is perhaps a writer's best friend, reaching out to an audience is a tough task, not everyone will be pleased, but with tension there is always that sense of uncertainty, and where Five Minutes of Heaven succeeds in building tension, through a simple 'handshake' between two men, it also falters in maintaining a fluid story, and not visiting plot points it should have.
A 17 year-old UVF cell leader known as Alistair Little is about to take the life of Catholic man as a warning to others in the same working environment. What he doesn't anticipate is the younger brother of the victim standing outside, and watching as Little pulls the trigger three times on his brother, then leaving the scene.
Years later, a reconciliation type event has been set up by a TV company in an attempt to have the now reformed and former prisoner Little (Liam Neeson), who now goes across the globe talking about his experiences and the feeling of killing an individual, and the younger brother Joe Griffin (James Nesbitt), a man who is filled with rage and is flashbacks reveal that he received the blame for his brothers death from his mother.
The film is then very much what is going through Joe's head as he prepares to meet Little, he wants to kill this man for what he has done, but he also seems greatly frustrated with the position that Little is now in, talking freely and being asked about his experiences all over the world, while he continues to relive in his head what happened on that night all those years ago at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
James Nesbitt perfectly shows a an who is not only riddled with grief and emotional loss, but also someone so driven by revenge it is perhaps clouding what exactly he wants, he talks quick through nerves, he wants to meet him but doesn't want to meet him. He knows Little killed his brother, but has now lost focus of the fact his brother is dead.
Liam Neeson's Little is someone who accepts what he is done but now attempts to live his life, by confronting his demons, he is a fallen and sunken man who expects the worse from his meeting with Joe, and also accepts why. Where the film slightly loses its momentum is the official meeting never happening, its understandable what route the writers where taking with this, a personal approach, but there is ultimately a lot of attention surrounding this event that doesn't occur.
But the film does have perhaps the most sensible and realistic of endings, and while certain other stories like Little's eventual prison sentence and Joe's wife and children could have been better explored, its another touching film on an already publicly explored area.… Expand

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