This is an actor's movie and the first of Lenny Abrahamson's movies I've seen. It might be the last, given the somewhat well-trodden story and plot coupled with the slow pacing of the entire narrative. On the other hand, it gave me an opportunity to see just how good an actor Jack Reynor (as Richard) is. Reynor is a natural, perhaps, and worth watching; but what also should be noted is the acting of the core ensemble of young students - consistently high quality.So, I have mixed feelings about the whole effort. The acting and direction are tops. The Storyline on the main page for this movie is sufficient for any viewer's needs. The dialogue is true to life with mostly a quite strong Irish lilt - naturally - but which is often so quick, this viewer found some difficulty to understand. Put it down to my advanced age, maybe (but I hope not).There is a long first act which provides the setup for the equally long second, during which the tragedy develops and unfolds i.e. a fight between Richard and Connor (Sam Keeley) over Lara (Roisin Murphy), Richard's girl friend. The boys are separated but Connor dies the next day from injuries.The shorter finale provides the viewer the opportunity to ponder a number of moral issues, the chief of which is surely: who was responsible? I don't intend to read the book, but Abrahamson and the screen writer (Malcolm Campbell) obviously decided to allow ambiguity to rule which, ultimately and ironically, shows us what Richard did NOT do: the right thing, in my opinion; but, he was not alone. When you see this movie, you can judge for yourself.Overall, though, this is an average night at the movies with no great outcomes - no pun intended. Five out of ten. Recommended for all.March 20, 2014

I saw this film at the Ghent (Belgium) film festival 2013, where it was part of the Global Cinema section. The descriptions on festival website, Facebook and IMDb sounded intriguing. But I can tell upfront that it was a disappointment, after all. The movie starts wrong, letting us endure half an hour of tittle-tattle, partying etcetera, which time could have been spent more fruitfully. It was probably meant to gradually introduce the characters involved. It did not work for me. I got lost in the process to remember who would become important for the plot, and who was just entourage. After that, there were a few potentially memorable moments, but the film makers missed all the opportunities without exception.Some examples of what I found wrong:Firstly, the mother of the victim held an impressive and moving speech in church during the memorial service. This could have been the trigger for interesting developments, but it was not. It should have been placed much sooner in the script anyway, and could have been the perfect point where people start fighting with their conscience, and contemplating arguments pro and con, so that we can feel along with their reasoning.Secondly, the conversation with his father where Richard finally confesses what has happened, is also poorly written and executed. The intro about the tree house is negligent and a waste of time. It is still not clear to me how and why Richard decided to confess, being visibly hesitant at first. He evenly could have chosen to lie to his father and deny every involvement.Thirdly, several friends of Richard knew more or less what happened, and one of them could have leaked the truth by accident (to police, to parents, to other friends, whatever). Conversely, they all saw the victim standing up again after the confrontation, but wasted that observation to defend themselves to everyone why they did not make an issue out of the fight and check the victim's condition, or even call anonymously for an ambulance.Finally, the police investigation falters for reasons unclear to us. This could have been exploited much better while Richard's friends knew more of the fatal accident than they told the police. This could have been excellent material for a so-called prisoner's dilemma. Alas, the police was not that competent in the case at hand, and this opportunity also got wasted.At first sight it does not seem useful to add my user review to the many that already appear on IMDb, given already a few as negative as I am. On the other hand, their negativism has many other reasons than I had, so the above may be useful for some readers anyway. This film received a lowly 50th place for the audience award, with score 3.64 out of 5.

I would disagree with some of the reviewers on here that the dialogue is weak or flimsy - it is certainly understated but that's really part of the whole film. When something so dramatic happens to the characters there doesn't need to be a rapid outpouring of feelings and melodramatic soliloquies - in fact by keeping it understated Abrahamson slowly builds up the tension as to what it is Richard is exactly going to do next. There may be several shots of silence in this film, but that doesn't mean they aren't saying anything. There are flashes of brilliance, especially in the scenes between father and son, but I was slightly unnerved/annoyed by the complete lack of mother figure in all of this - the characters are all given some amount of layers which are built upon and yet we see Richard's mother for two short scenes only. I can't imagine that Abrahamson didn't mean for this to be the case but for me it broke the realism slightly - as his mother, wouldn't she have thought something was different about her son recently? It could have added a more interesting aspect to the father as well in that he didn't want to let her in on her son's secret but for some reason she is never dealt with.Overall though, a beautifully tranquil soundtrack and a cinematography of rustic, windswept Dublin outskirts add to the haunted performance by Jack Reynor to make a slow building but thoughtful film. I think calling it the most important Irish film of the decade could be stretching it a bit - but it's certainly got me looking forward to Abrahamson's next work, which might well be.

This movie is a slow moving drama that puts its "hero" in a horrific moral dilemma of his own making and examines his actions. I found it impossible not to wonder what I would do if I was in a similar position, which I presume is what the director wanted.The main character, Richard, seems to have it all. He is a young man from a privileged Dublin background who has just finished secondary school. He was captain of the school rugby team and is universally liked by everyone. He seems set for an enjoyable summer before he starts university. At a party he meets the girlfriend of a teammate. He "fancies" her and after a while they start going out.At a later party Richard and the ex-boyfriend exchange harsh words and things soon get out of hand and the ex-boyfriend dies. The authorities don't know who is responsible. Richard has to decide what he will do. We watch him wrestle with the dilemma of giving up his rosy future by admitting the truth or doing nothing and hoping it will all fade away.There are great performances all round from the cast, especially Jack Reynor in the lead role. Lenny Abrahamson is one of the great Irish directors with movies such as "Garage" and "Adam and Paul" and this movie is up to that high standard.