'Five Minutes of Heaven' narrative does not hold together

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

Cast: Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt

Cert: 15

This is a drama about forgiving and not forgiving set around a sectarian 1973 shooting in Lurgan, the present-day meeting of the Catholic victim’s brother Joe Griffen (Nesbitt) and the Protestant killer Alistair Little (Neeson) for a face-to-face TV documentary.

The shooting is, at length, covered in flashback though the main emphasis is on the characters of the two: Griffen is nervous and twitchy, Little is coldly calm. And the question concerning the former is why … why is he taking part in the meeting with a man who murdered his brother and blighted his own life?

Revenge seems like the strong motive since Griffen takes a knife to the meeting, though the film concentrates on the strengths and weaknesses of the two, largely, if not consistently, successfully since the narrative does not quite hold together.

This is the first time the two Ulster actors have appeared together and they certainly emerge with credit from a story that is both harrowing, questioning but somehow not rounded enough.

Star Rating: 3/5