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Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Best movie ever!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

It's hard to believe that this movie was directed by a major director. It has no pacing, no sense of urgency. I kept thinking that it is the sort of movie Hollywood made very well in the 1930s with James Stewart or Gary Cooper - an individual trying to fight a corrupt establishment - but those movies held together much better than this.Part of it is the acting. You get the impression that, with the exception of the leads, these are all just folks rather than trained actors. That makes them seem very real, certainly, but it also makes for a lot of flat moments that could have been more intense with actors who knew how to deliver dramatic lines.On the other hand, the dialogue, much of it, seems painfully scripted and unnatural, especially during the discussions in the hall.I couldn't get through all of this in one sitting. It just didn't hold me. Others have said that this is a story worth telling, and that is certainly true. I just wish it had been told in a more engaging fashion.

"Jimmy's Hall" (2014 release from Ireland/UK; 109 min.) brings the true story of what happened to Jimmy Gralton upon his return to Ireland in 1932. the movie's opening titles are accompanied by archive footage of New York in the late 20s/early 30s. As the movie opens, we are told it is "County Leitrim, Ireland, 1932", and we see Jimmy coming back to Ireland after 20 years in New York (presumably because of the Depression and related unemployment). It's not long before Jimmy and his friends decide to renovate the Pears-Connelly Hall, so as to give young people and the community a place to gather for dancing, reading, drawing, singing, etc. (we would call it a "community rec center" these days). This does not sit well with the local priest, who claims 'exclusivity' for all things that could be deemed educational, nor are the local landlords pleased. At this point we are 15 min. into the movie, but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is the latest movie be legendary British director Ken Loach, now a crisp 79 years young (and similar to Woody Allen in his never-ceasing output). Loach is well-known for using his films as social commentary, and "Jimmy's Hall" is no exception. For me, that is not an issue, and Loach has made a number of stunningly beautiful and captivating movies over the years. Hence I was ready to like "Jimmy's Hall" very much. Alas, it was not to be, for several reasons: first, the movie is not very helpful to let us understand why certain factions take a particular position (we are never told what beef the landlords have with Jimmy and his friends) or why the issue of the land ownership matters initially, and then a bit later on it doesn't. But the biggest disappointment I have with the film is that at no point did I become emotionally invested in any of the main characters. Yes the local priest is easy to loathe, and we all do, but we are not given a chance to really buy in to Jimmy, or his friends, or his romantic interest. It all just happens, for seemingly no reason. If this was a fictional story, I'd have walked out an hour into the movie, but since this movie is "inspired by the life and times of Jimmy Gralton" (as is announced at the beginning of the movie), I wanted to find out how it would all unfold. There are some fine performances, but I found the chemistry between Jimmy (played by Barry Ward) and his romantic interest (played by Francis Magee) completely lacking and unconvincing. Last but certainly not least, there is a very nice musical score to the movie, featuring both traditional Irish music and jazz from the 20s and 30s.I had seen the trailer for "Jimmy's Hall" a few times and was really looking forward to this. "Jimmy's Hall" finally opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The early evening screening where I saw this at was attended okay but not great (I counted 12 people, including myself, of which one walked out halfway through and didn't come back). As much as I like Ken Loach, this is not none of his best, I'm afraid. But I certainly encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater, on Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion about "Jimmy's Hall".

Seventy-nine year old British director Ken Loach has been dealing with social issues in film since the early 1960's and JIMMY'S HALL is no exception, based on a 10 year period in the life of Jimmy Gralton, a Leitrim (County in Ireland) Socialist - the only Irishman ever deported from Ireland in 1933. The clash between the Catholic Church, intermixed with local politicians and what they considered Stalinist/Communist ideas brewing in a small village's Dance/Meeting Hall - built for the local community of farmers and laborers - teaching art, poetry, song, boxing classes, highlighting music and dance performances; a space to openly speak about landowner/working conditions.I am a sucker for a good-looking Irishman, and Barry Ward is just that; he plays Jimmy who is expressive, passionate and a stirring advocate for basic individual freedoms. We meet him in 1932, after a forced 10 year exile in NYC, returning home to work on the family's small plot of land at a "hopeful" time, a new government has come into power. Set amidst the rolling green hills of an idyllic village, Jimmy plans to settle down and help his elderly mother, a former librarian who years earlier drove around the rural area, bringing books - catalysts for ideas - to her neighbors. Life in 1932 is and is not the same - personal relationships have changed - former love interest Oonagh who fought at his side in earlier days, having not heard from him for a long time after Gralton was forced to flee Ireland in 1921, married a "solid" man from the hamlet and bore 2 children. Despite the years gone by, their deep connection has never come untethered and the tenderness between these two intense fighters for human rights is filmed in a lovely scene where they slowly move together, swaying under the pale light of unrealized dreams; fulfillment impossible.JIMMY'S HALL is a movie about the pervasive paranoia and corruption of Ireland's Government/Church partnership in maintaining "moral order" in a world that is absorbing new ideologies; where principles and tenets cannot be contained in ancestral and inbred receptacles. The community demonstrates an unrelenting courage and willingness to confront representatives of the power elite in their attempt to love, laugh, frolic, and examine doctrines that have been intrinsic to them - no longer isolated they dare to defy through unity thereby gathering courage. Director Ken Loach's radiant portrayal of Jimmy Gralton resurrects a fighter whose name was all but forgotten. The combat against a powerful, intransigent armed state in 1932 seemed desperately futile, but history has proved otherwise.

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.