BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

lastliberal Director Pete Travis (Vantage Point) got a well-deserved BAFTA in this gut wrenching film written by Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Ultimatum) and Guy Hibbert.The story of a 1998 bombing that claimed 29 lives and injured over 200 shows the struggle against political stonewalling and cover-up by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and government authorities.Imagine a father's surprise when he finds out that the authorities knew about the blast beforehand and did nothing. You can imagine the families of the victims of the September 11th bombings in this country and the suspicion of a cover-up. There was a real cover-up here.Gerard McSorley (Veronica Guerin, The Constant Gardener) led a stellar cast that included Michele Forbes as his wife.NOTE: Justice was not served with criminal prosecutions, but there was a successful civil suit after the OJ Simpson civil suit.

techboardhr First I have never been a fan of the shaking camera effect. OK maybe it's useful for a few brief scenes to show chaos. Adding the documentary tone to this movie makes it come off as transparently contrived. It just gives the movie an unreal cheap low budget flavor.I also did not know when I rented it that it was made for TV movie. The film is not horrible by any means. There are some very good segments in it dealing with grief. However considering the excellent subject matter I think a much better film could have been made. Of course it would have required a bigger budget.It also could have explored the Northern Ireland conflict or at least shown what might have motivated the bombing. Rather than just use it as a tool to portray the subjects as apparently purely evil.

Oct The most salient fact about this TV movie is that its two hours' running time includes 65 speaking parts. Torn between focusing on one or two human stories behind Northern Ireland's worst terrorist outrage and giving a panorama of the politics that led to it, the production settles for wheeling on almost every Ulster character actor you ever saw and others besides. Even an Oscar winner, Brenda Fricker, is in there somewhere, so she is: blink and you'll miss her. This jittery kaleidoscope creates confusion and dissipates sympathy; as soon as we begin to dig into one victim's backstory, we're off at another tangent. Neither good art nor good commerce, such worthy exercises in the reconstruction of recent events fall between the stools of documentary and drama. Like many, "Omagh" is shot in "swivelvision" in the common but quite mistaken belief that this makes it look more "real"-- as though documentarists had never learned to use Steadicam. It tiptoes delicately through the minefield of libel that bedevils moveimakers trying to portray unresolved situations: a title at the end tells us that the suspected bombers all deny involvement, so there is no catharsis to be obtained by showing them going to jail. Making us feel sorry for the bereaved is easy meat; but like many an American "issue" movie, all this one will generate in viewers outside Northern Ireland is smug relief at being hors de combat.

Dibby Having just seen this film, I believe that some superlatives are warranted! The performances in this film are hauntingly powerful, most notably Gerald Mcsorley, whose immense portrayal adds credibility and resonance to the tragic story. The direction is magnificent...mostly shot in the style of a documentary, while refraining from actually being a mockumentary. This also adds weight. The fact that this creative, interesting and powerful film only finds a home on TV, rather than at the cinemas...while films like Sex lives and the Potato Men gets a general release, says a lot about the British Film industry!