About this product: Written by Jennifer Westfeldt, who also stars as Abby in this Manhattan-centric comedy, Ira & Abby is akin to Woody Allen's filmic escapades with Diane Keaton, minus the intellectual rigor. More like an extended sitcom episode, Ira & Abby's jaunty vibe gives credit where credit is due, by casting Seinfeld's Jason Alexander as a convincing psychiatrist Dr. Morris Saperstein. In this film, Ira Black (Chris Messina) is a self-doubting depressant who, raised by two affluent therapists, thinks too much until he meets the air-headed but refreshingly genuine gym sales consultant, Abby Willoughby. Marrying after one passionate day, viewers quickly discover how Ira and Abby's parents refract the personalities of the two lovers. Seymour and Arlene Black (Robert Klein and Judith Light) seem formal, unhappily married, and bitterly aging. Michael and Lynne Willoughby (Fred Willard and Frances Conroy) appear to be an idyllic, jovial married couple, until several events reveal how none of the three couples can maintain surface façades. As in Allen's films, most scenes center around misunderstandings and mishaps, leading to several comedic visits to various therapists. One wonders throughout whether Ira and Abby will pull through, though the film ultimately questions marriage as a construct in the sweet, simplified language of romantic comedy. —Trinie Dalton
About this product: The August 15, 1998 terrorist bombing in the Northern Ireland town of Omagh that killed 29 and injured hundreds of others is the raison d'etre for director Pete Travis's movie of the same name. But the bulk of this moving, beautifully-made film is devoted to the aftermath of the bombing, and American viewers still reeling from the atrocities of 9/11/01 and the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina may well find those events to be not merely compelling but hauntingly familiar. There's little suspense here; indeed, we know what's going to happen from the opening credits, when we see the bomb being made and planted in a car parked on the town's busy main street. Thereafter, people like Michael Gallagher (a fine, low key performance by Gerard McSorley) and his family must first deal with the excruciating agony of losing a loved one. But when weeks pass without a single arrest having been made, Gallagher and others form a support group and ask a simple question: Why? Instead of anything resembling justice, what they encounter are a host of incompetent, slow-reacting politicians and other officials offering little more than smarmy evasions. And that's not even the worst of it; in the most harrowing echo of 9/11 and Katrina, the film suggests that the folks in charge may even have ignored explicit warnings that the bomb (which was the work of a group calling itself "the real Irish Republican Army") was coming. Dramatic and moving without being the least bit sappy or sentimental, Omagh is a riveting, relevant piece of work. --Sam Graham
About this product: Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, this gripping drama by Ken Loach (Raining Stones) is set during the early days of the Irish Republican Army, when British occupation of the Irish radicalized many a citizen and caused some to take up arms. Cillian Murphy plays Damien, a medical student on his way to London when he witnesses a couple of atrocities committed by British troops. Instead of becoming a doctor, he turns into a leading and respected figure in an IRA division led by his brother, Teddy (Padraic Delaney). The film provides some fascinating historical insight into the nascent resistance movement as it was in 1920, and Loach brilliantly conveys the profound emotional transition young men had to make to become saboteurs and killers. Loach's realistic style is absolutely mesmerizing, with many scenes built around the dynamics of large groups: contentious meetings, torture sessions, battles, celebrations, and the like. One has the sense of history as a pool of energy, and one also develops a kind of Renoiresque appreciation for the fact that different people on opposing sides of a life-or-death issue have their reasons for believing what they believe. As the story moves along, subtle shifts in the perspectives of men and women who had once agreed to be absolute in their fight for freedom results in a tragic yet understandable schism among Irish patriots. The final half-hour of The Wind That Shakes the Barley says a lot about how the Irish, including people who had known one another all their lives, turned their wrath on one another for so many decades. This is an outstanding film, featuring the best performance yet by Murphy (Red Eye). --Tom Keogh
About this product: Irish writer-director Neil Jordan followed up his surprise hit The Crying Game with this controversial biography of IRA leader Michael Collins (Liam Neeson), one of the most important political leaders of the 20th century. The film follows Collins as he matures from guerrilla leader to national hero and statesman. Jordan's take on Collins is that he was set up by Irish president Eamon De Valera (Alan Rickman), who was jealous of Collins's legendary popularity. De Valera puts Collins in the position of negotiating a peace treaty that would never satisfy the Irish hero's hard-core followers. When the IRA leader returns with a first-step compromise, De Valera undercuts Collins's popularity by refusing to support the revised treaty. And the civil war continues for decades. Michael Collins occasionally loses focus and momentum, but is the kind of exciting historical drama that deserves to be called "sweeping." It is also one of the most beautifully photographed films in years: cinematographer Chris Menges uses color and texture to set moods and accent emotions. The movie also stars Aidan Quinn, Julia Roberts, and Stephen Rea. --Jim Emerson
About this product: Academy AwardÂ(r) winner* Frances McDormand (Fargo) and Brian Cox (Rob Roy) confront danger and deception at every turn in this "chilling, explosive" (The New York Times)story set in strife-torn Northern Ireland. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Hidden Agenda is a "taut political thriller" (The Hollywood Reporter) that "makes the unthinkable seem all too plausible" (The Washington Post). American activists Paul Sullivan (Brad Dourif) and his fiancÃ(c)e Ingrid Jessner (McDormand) journey to Belfast to probe allegations of brutal human rights abuses by British security forces. When Paul is killed under mysterious circumstances, the official reports list him as an I.R.A. accomplice. But Ingrid and British policeman Paul Kerrigan (Cox) question the findings and begin to uncover a shocking high-level conspiracy. Now, with their safety in jeopardy, they must decide whether to risk everything to reveal the truth. *1996: Actress
About this product: The enormous story of Irish emigration is well told in this documentary that mixes an adept historical overview and deeply touching personal stories with well-chosen archival material and gorgeously filmed modern footage. The troubled history of Ireland is covered by way of explaining why millions fled their homeland, and deserved attention is given to the uprising of 1798 and the Great Famine of the 1840s. The flood of poor Irish to the New World and their struggles to assimilate and eventually triumph is told with excerpts of letters, some of which are beautifully read by the noted playwright John B. Keane. Musician and folklorist Mick Moloney appears frequently to offer apt anecdotes and appropriate snatches of song, and historians provide perspective on the poverty and political repression at home that forced the Irish to cross a dangerous ocean to find a better life. Representative 19th-century Irish immigrants who found new lives in places as diverse as Massachusetts and North Dakota are profiled, and the contributions made in American society by the descendants of the millions who left Ireland are noted. As a striking blend of solid history and resonant personalities, Out of Ireland is a thoughtful presentation that also happens to be a pleasure to watch. --Robert J. McNamara
About this product: Retired CIA agent Adam Hall (James Brolin) has been called in to locate and neutralize Liam Fallon, an armed and dangerous renegade IRA terrorist who has begun a campaign of murder and mayhem designed to end the peace talks. Hall must employ the help of Liam's brother Gerry, a convicted terrorist responsible for killing Hall's sister, in order to get to Liam. Pitting brother against brother, Hall has his work cut out for him in this dramatic, action-packed thriller.
About this product: With breathtaking verisimilitude, Bloody Sunday posits an immediate, you-are-there re-creation of Ireland's most controversial contemporary tragedy. From dusk to dawn, the events of January 30, 1972, are presented in convincing verité fashion; by employing rapid fade-to-black transitions, director Paul Greengrass approaches two perspectives with equal anticipation of potential disaster, based on facts as reported in Don Mullan's politically influential book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday. Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt) is, ironically, a Protestant Member of Parliament, leading a peaceful but tensely expectant civil rights march through the Catholic "bogside" of the city of Derry, in protest of the British practice of internment without trial. He watches in horror as his throng of unarmed protesters splinters against British paramilitaries who impulsively open fire. No question where Greengrass's sympathies lie (heard but not seen, the first shots are British), but despite charges of inaccuracy and bias, Bloody Sunday will likely stand as the definitive cinematic representation of that horrible day when deadly confusion reigned supreme. (U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" plays over the closing credits; any other choice would have been blasphemous.) --Jeff Shannon
About this product: Based on a true story, this rousing and tough-minded film details British overzealousness in prosecuting an IRA bombing in the 1970s. Grabbing up a pair of small-time thieves (Daniel Day-Lewis and John Lynch) and their families, the government concocts a conspiracy case against them and tosses them all in jail. Until then, Day-Lewis has been a ne'er-do-well, an apolitical goof looking for a quick score. But confronted with the toughness of his own father (Pete Postlethwaite) in the face of British torture, he begins to realize just what the stakes are. In the Name of the Father is at times grueling and never less than compelling, with a complex performance by Day-Lewis and a strong one by Emma Thompson, as the lawyer who finally cracks through the British obstructions to the truth. --Marshall Fine
About this product: Host of Chicago Public Radio's This American Life since 1995, Ira Glass segues successfully to the small screen with this Showtime series. The first season begins with the saga of Chance, a Brahma bull who met President Bush, appeared in a movie with Vince Vaughn, and guested on The Late Show. To prepare for the passing of their elderly pet and "business associate," Chance's owners clone him, but things don't go as planned. Their segment airs in tandem with a piece in which an improv group gives a band their best gig ever--to mixed results. In other episodes, Glass profiles a late-in-life screenwriter, the stepson of a one-hit wonder, and a 14-year-old who's sworn off love. As quirky as these one-act movies sound, Glass and reporters Jorge Just, Nancy Updike, Nazanin Rafsanjani, and Alex Blumberg play up the universality of their subjects rather going for exploitation or easy laughs. They also leave it up to viewers to provide morals and conclusions (We never find out, for instance, whether the short featured in "Lights" makes it into the Sundance Film Festival). In each of the six half-hour programs, prologues or epilogues reinforce the theme, such as Chris Ware's animation about a childhood craze for fake TV cameras. Emmy voters presented This American Life with awards for outstanding non-fiction series and direction, while Showtime renewed the show for a second season. Bonus features include a photo gallery, a Glass biography, and commentary from Glass and director Christopher Wilcha on the pilot. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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