Starring: Barry Ward, Jim Norton, Simone Kirby
Having spent ten years living in New York City, Jimmy Gralton (Ward) returns to his small rural hometown in Country Leitrim, Ireland. Soon after arriving he is convinced to help bring back a town hall he helped build before being effectively forced out for his left-wing political views. Jimmy and some of the locals bring back the club for dancing and education, only to once again draw the disapproving attention of the conservative and heavily religious authorities of the town.
Only weeks after Hayao Miyazaki's supposedly last film The Wind Rises (2013) has reached the UK, we now have Jimmy's Hall, which is believed to be the last theatrical feature by Ken Loach who, much like Miyazaki, is a veteran director beloved by many and known for the often left-of-centre views espoused by his films. To that end, Jimmy's Hall is no exception.
A telling of the true story of Irish communist James Gralton, Jimmy's Hall lacks the gritty social realism of Kes (1969), Loach's best-known film but this is a man whose work has noticeably changed after forty-five years. The Irish backdrop of the film is a rural idyll of green rolling hills and the film's soft approach really hurts the film in its opening. The film's beginnings trudge on and an early flashback sequence is executed in such a way as to make you unsure where the flashback and where the current story intersect.
But in a perhaps symbolic way, it is when the titular hall is built that the story, like a good share of the local community, comes together. Of course a lot of this is through the energy that is finally released. Loach is all too capable of being tough with his films. Far from being just a sweet story of pastoral postcard Ireland, the film shows a girl being brutally whipped (as in with a literal horse whip) by her father and gunshots being fired with seemingly little care towards women and children. Unrest underscores the film as it depicts an Ireland torn by mass migration, political, religious and social reform as well a war of independence and a resulting civil war. Yet the film could easily be read as analogous to current issues in the world, especially the current discord between the American political left and the religious conservatives.
Whilst some of this energy is the result of Loach's skill as a film-maker, a certain amount can also be attributed to the central performances. Playing Jimmy Gralton is Barry Ward. An actor from a largely theatrical background, which aids to give his grandstanding some weight. Jim Norton plays Father Sheridan, the local priest. A performance filled with indignation and entertaining throughout.
I've heard criticism of the film, attacking it for being too one-sided in Jimmy's favour, painting him as a saint and his opponents as one-dimensional villains and whilst I agree that the film's treatment of James Gralton is a very eulogistic one, the film does make some pains to show certain sympathies with the religious opposition, even if it is only paid any kind of attention towards the very end of the film.
I suppose it's fair to say that Jimmy's Hall is uneven. Slow and lulling to start and a film that does slightly overstay its welcome, but in between that is a film of energy and life that is resolutely admirable and is, even given the subject matter that it deals with and the way it is dealt with, entertaining.
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