"We need to take control of our lives again. Work for need, not for greed. And not just to survive like a dog, but to live. And to celebrate. And to dance, to sing, as free human beings." James Gralton (Barry Ward) Jimmy's Hall depicts an Irish dance hall, Pearse-Connolly Hall, made by the people as a Depression-era testimony to their will to be free human beings. Such a spirit, embodied in true-life by James Gralton, who built the structure and suffered for it, is in almost every beautiful frame of a romantic-realist film that cries out for the common man.Oh, yeah, it's class struggles again, as if we don't have it still in America. In Jimmy's Hall, the people have dirt on their hands and worn clothes on their backs, but they have an indomitable spirit that exists always despite major oppression from the likes of England and the Catholic Church. The dance segments and theme may evoke Kevin Bacon in Footloose, but this film goes beyond dance into metaphysical rebellion.Only too real is the divide between the haves and the have not's, which today manifests itself in the form of the 1 percent super rich and self-centered legislators. Donald Trump would be an appropriate reference for the rich and some Southern senators for the legislators. In any case, those of us on the low side of the 99% can identify.In this film, the rebellion is aimed squarely on the Catholic Church, embodied in the local pastor antagonist, Father Sheridan (Jim Norton), who mistakenly labels Gralton and his followers "communists," although they want only freedom and dance for everyone. It's the empowerment of the working class that endangers the absolute rule of the Catholic hierarchy, in cahoots with local power brokers, one of whom flogs his teen daughter for participating in the hall. Norton as the powerful prelate steals the picture, except that Ward as Gralton could become the coolest romantic hero in modern cinema.Jimmy's Hall is a different kind of rebellion epic because Jimmy is not murdered, and considerable violence is reserved for the hall itself. Deportation is a sort of punishment particularly painful for a people so closely defined by their land.So the emphasis then is on the oppression of the mind (the Depression has the corner on violence to the welfare of the common man everywhere). For the Irish, a people deeply imbued in culture and specifically music and poetry, the film draws us to their charisma and grit, a beautiful evocation of spirit.The love between Jimmy and erstwhile sweetheart Oonagh (Simone Kirby) is as good as you'll get in any film, especially where dance plays such an erotic and symbolic part. Spoiler: They never kiss! Don't miss this beguiling and involving historical romance about a great people: "The reason the Irish are always fighting each other is they have no other worthy opponents." Irish Proverb

This story highlights the struggle for individual respect and liberty that has been going on since the reformation. Today, people often attach words communist or socialist to the struggle of the individual. This film reminds us of the other side of the story: greed and power are the feudal and capitalist side of the story.One flaw in the movie is that people assume the struggle between Jimmy and the priest is communism versus the church. But Jimmy was not a communist. Jimmy was a grass-roots liberal who supported his community and occasionally spoke out against the concentration of power. The church represents this concentration of power and the struggle to maintain the concentration of power.During the 1920's, a large percentage of the world's "Wealth" was tied up in speculative investments. Corrupt politicians sided with the land holders and the "Robber barons". By 1924, economic experts started to announce that unfettered greed would lead to an economic crisis in the USA and Europe. In 1929, the US stock-market crash vaporized much of the world's wealth and centralized power among an even smaller percentage of the population.The movie includes a lot of history that most people in the US and UK who were born before 1977 already know. However, for most of the world, the Irish history and the extent of the struggle between the rich and poor during those times is new.This struggle continues today. Instead of hereditary land owners, we have large banks and other institutions that "influence" most of the world's "capitalist" governments. The government favors for corporations and privatization of government services that starting in the late 1970's continues to this day and is responsible for the depression of 2008.Without government support for those who were thrown into poverty, the 2008 depression would have been as bad as the 1929 depression. I think the writers were trying to remind us about the consequences of unfettered greed.

Ken Loach probably intended this film to be an ode to freedom. The freedom to do whatever you like, without an oppressive authority laying out the rules. In this particular case, the oppressive authority is the catholic church in Ireland, and the people fighting for freedom are the ordinary farmers and citizens, building their own community hall where they can dance, sing, play music and organize other events. The intention is good, but Loach delivers his message in a clumsy way. 'Jimmy's Hall' is a film without sharp edges, a one-dimensional tale of good and bad. The good guy is Jimmy, who returns to the Irish countryside after ten years in New York. The locals ask him to rebuild the old community hall, but when it is finished he has to confront the bad guy: the local priest, who considers the hall to be a threat to the power base of the catholic church. The supporters of the hall do everything they can, but in the end they can't win from such a powerful and oppressive institute. The raw realism from some of Loach's earlier films is completely missing here. The characters are hardly realistic - Jimmy is the hero and the priest is a villain. The script is completely one- dimensional. Jimmy is so holier-than-thou that he doesn't even try to win back the love of his one-time sweetheart Oonagh, because now she is married with children. In one scene, the two dance together in the dark silent hall. Loach probably meant this as a heart-breaking scene, but failed.The acting and the dialogue are stiff and unnatural. At one point, Jimmy's supporters discuss if they should attend a meeting in support of a homeless family. Some are against, because they think this could lead to the closing down of the hall. They politely exchange arguments, in well-formulated sentences. No shouting, no emotions, no cursing. It's like watching a stage play. And not even a good one. Let me be clear: not everything is terrible. 'Jimmy's Hall' is beautifully filmed, and brings an unsavoury aspect of pre-war Ireland to attention. But it is definitely not one of Ken Loach's best movies.

Except for the theme, you can't really recognize it's a Ken Loach film. It's over sentimental, well completely cheesy, horribly Manichean, it has some the most terrible and stiff acting i've seen in years. The scene where Jimmy's old love try the dress he has given her and where they dance together is awkward and disgustingly lit, the least subtle thing in a film that walks with big heavy wooden clogs. The end is a pastiche of Dead Poet Society's ending, some young smiling idiots are chanting for him while cycling behind the police van that is taking our failed hero back to America where he is deported, thank god for us. For a director that has done so much for English cinema, Riff Raff, Lady Bug Lady Bug, Poor Cow ... that made the most political and original films with economy of dialogs, bright and clever scripts, to be reduced to do a ultra conventional period drama, that sometimes over explain things to us like we're complete morons and sometimes is so historically or even narratively so vague to the point where it becomes laughable more than understandable is not only a shame but a waste of talent. It's meant to be all deep and political but in the end it's just a tower of clichés and a competition of bad acting belching a compilation of debilitating dialogs. He said he wanted to stop cinema after doing this atrocious crime against cinema, he should have stop before doing Carla's Song and save us from suffering in front of those boring films that resembles the most soporific history classes of our teenage hood, save THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, is only decent film in the last 20 years of his career. To see a Director sabotaging his legacy is not only appalling but depressing.