Country (2000) User Reviews

excellent & moving movie

[irlca · 8/10 · 30 August 2009]

I found this film to be quite accurate regarding growing up in Ireland. I grew up there in the countryside and identify strongly with the characters. Emotionally speaking the film is spot on. As regards acting it is also excellent. An odd time it is a little bit stilted but just for a second. For example when Sarah is about to be raped she is pushed back on the straw and lies there. I think she would have struggled. Or when the older brother has a fight with the Dad the Dad strikes him several times and the chap just takes it (while lying on the ground). Again I think he would have struggled. But these are quite minor. I like the way the film has no really bad characters. There is an explanation of why the are so but of course not an excuse to be so.

Beautifully filmed and wonderfully played

[seamus.o'brien · 4 January 2001]

I saw this film on holiday in Dublin, in October 2000. This is an impressive debut film by Kevin Liddy. It is relevant to past and present Ireland. It is beautifully filmed and the drama is wonderfully played by a talented cast. I was impressed by all the cast but particularly by Gary Lydon and Des Cave. The film examines beautifully the complex relationships between father and sons.

A film that deals with relationships between family

[Alison-Mason · 10/10 · 7 November 2007]

This film called 'Country' examines the complex relationship between a father and son. The film is set in rural Ireland in the 1970s and it tells the story of a motherless family of men shaken by the arrival of an estranged aunt from England. This family happens to live on a farm and the aunt comes to stay after the death of young boy Jack's mother. This story is based on particularly around this family and their relationships between them, as this film deals with heartbreak and emotions and love. The theme of the outsider is continued in the social backdrop of a community of travellers. The young boy Jack befriends another boy, who is a little older than him and is one of the travellers, called Michael, who is living near by the farm, who teaches Jack to defend himself from bullies. This film is beautifully filmed with shots of the countryside and the drama is wonderfully played by talented casts. It shows what life was like in Ireland during that time living in the countryside and the difficulties of being raised and the dislikes between the neighbours from different communities. I enjoyed this film as it was written and directed very well.

Why didn't someone think of this before?

[hammy-3 · 5/10 · 27 November 2000]

Think of the pitch for this movie: it's set in rural Ireland, where the older people nurse ancient grudges and enmities and the young ones want to leave and go somewhere more exciting, encouraged by a long-lost relative that turns up for a funeral.

Then ask: hasn't this been done before? And why aren't there more movies about the place Ireland is becoming and less about the place it used to be?

This film isn't totally uwatchable, but it never achieves the pathos it strives for, just a sort of dull lugubrity. You just want to take it to a psychiatrist and get it prescribed some Prozac. The acting isn't bad, and it makes good use of the scenery. It's sense of period is slightly unsure, though.

I'm tempted to think that, set near the border with Northen Ireland in the mid '60's among people who nurse ancient grudges, it may be strivng for some kind of allegorical significance, though regarding what I can't imagine.