Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Theo Robertson This is a slow burning romantic drama set against the backdrop of The Troubles in Northern Ireland . There's very few satisfying films that use the backdrop of The Troubles as its theme THE DEVIL'S OWN is a travesty . RESURRECTION MAN is low budget underdeveloped torture porn . Both SOME MOTHER'S SON and IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER are based on true events but suffer from artistic licence by the producers . Along with HARRY'S GAME this movie is probably the best movie on The Troubles in my opinion and it did receive much critical acclaim when it was released in the mid 1980s . Sadly when I came to this page it had less than 1,000 votes and a grand total of six people had bothered to comment on it which is a pity since it deserves to be better rememberedAt the core of the story is a love affair between a recently widowed librarian Marcella and a teenager called Cal who is a recent recruit to the IRA . Some people might claim this is an unlikely love affair but I think were to brutally about human sexuality men would confess to being sexually attracted towards older women while women are sexually attracted to younger men and it's only social conditioning that has stopped these type of love affairs becoming more common . It should also be pointed out this sets up the mystery of plot where the audience wonder who it was who pulled the trigger and murdered Marcella's husbandOne thing is unlikely and that is the way the IRA want to keep Cal in the organisation . In the early 1970s with internment and Bloody Sunday the IRA didn't find recruiting young men from Republican ghettos a problem . The problem started with new recruits having to plant bombs that often killed and mutilated innocent civilians both protestant and catholic and the recruits finding themselves wanting no part of this violence so they'd be released by the IRA . This was entirely down to practicalities - an unwilling volunteer in the IRA could be easily recruited by RUC special branch and MI5 as an informer The dialogue does suffer from blackly comical absurdity which is no doubt deliberate such as the robbing of a cinema " How'd it go ? " " What ? " " The f-ckin' picture did ya get the money ? " " Oh aye shaking in her hi heels . Whose side it this time ? I said ya think I'm working for the other side ya stupid b*tch " There's also the bizarre nature of an IRA gunman being a mod and committing acts of Republican terrorism while wearing patches dedicated to The Jam on his jacket . One can visualise him attending IRA meetings while wearing a parka emblazoned by Union flags with hilarious results All in all this is a very good drama featuring the Troubles as its backdrop . Some people might be put off down to the fact that there's little incident but that's to forget it's a human drama rather than a thriller and is intelligently written and superbly played by the cast which makes it possibly the best of the films featuring the Troubles

blacknorth A strangely and unhappily compelling film from the pen over the wildly over-rated Bernard MacLaverty. The script piles improbability on improbability but, given that its premise is so unlikely, perhaps that is the point, a kind of coincidental momentum of the poor and the bad.Helen Mirren doesn't fare too well as an RUC widow - there are many Irish actresses who could have suited and played this role much more convincingly. John Lynch is fine, looks the part, capturing something of the long-haired, unwashed aesthetic of the hunger-strikers of the time. The best performance is easily by Donal McCann as Lynch's Da, greasily working up a sweat at the local slaughterhouse. Ray McAnally is wasted in a small part.I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but it's an interesting addition to the Troubles archive. Some fine photography and backdrops go a long way towards salvaging a rotten script.

Glenn Walsh Nobody that I have ever discussed this film with thinks it is any good. The characters are pretty much stereotypes from 'The Troubles,', but the core of the plot requires a suspension of disbelief that can't be made. The idea of a murdered RUC officer's widow taking up with a known Provo (regardless of her religion) is just too much to take in. Cal himself is a pretty unsympathetic character and by the end of the film he gets the kicking that he richly deserves. To make matters worse we get the usual diddly-dee score and lots of culshies doing rustic stuff because we are all so backward here.

taia The film "Cal" is about a young boy who falls in love with Marcella, both Catholic. Cal "works" for the IRA, and he participated in the killing of Marcella's husband. Cal wants to get out of the IRA, but that's not too easy. Anyway, the whole story is really about the relationship between Cal and Marcella, a great Irish love story. A story with an Irish ending...