Route Irish

Taking a conventional thriller storyline and moulding it through his style, Ken Loach creates one of the most interesting and pertinent films about the war(s) in the Middle East, one which still works exceptionally well as a thriller but has a sense of sadness and melancholy to its narrative which is bitter. When the ending came around and moral questions started to come upfront, it really stuck a nerve with me immensely, something which I applaud this film for.

Loach does what he does best. He creates interesting characters and Route Irish is not an exception. Sadly though, the film isnt that good. The pace is awkward, the story isnt thrilling and even though it is more realistic than the american films touching upon the same themes I just never cared that much.

Ken Loach has crafted an interesting revenge drama in Route Irish. A window through which to view a not often seen side of modern war.

The positive is that it has a nuanced look at the work of private security contractors, without painting them as simple bad or good. Like all Loach movies the characterization is done well. Loach and Laverty seem to understand that most people are emotional instead of rational beings, doing some times stupid stuff and reaching the wrong conclusions because of their emotions. The negative is that unfortunate the pacing of the movie is off, it never really engages as much as it should.

68.500

Not at all bad, but intense and interesting. It gets a bit too obvious at times, when the story takes over the control of everything (and it gets a bit detective-like), but overall, Loach creates great characters that are believable.

People screaming exposition at each other. Including a waterboarding sequence where Loach participates in the crimes he tries to denounce. Really the very bottom of Loach/Laverty's increasingly useless political thriller mechanisms.

At least Loach is more sympathetic to Iraq (and other invaded regions) than other European directors like Susanne Bier and Jim Sheridan.