MOVIE REVIEW Black romantic comedy 'Intermission' is a wild mix

Seemingly diverse stories are cobbled together.
By MILAN PAURICH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
With 54 characters and 11 frequently overlapping stories vying for your attention, there's certainly a lot to keep track of in "Intermission," the smashing feature debut by celebrated Irish theater director John Crowley.
Even though Crowley references everyone from Robert Altman to Quentin Tarantino, Mike Leigh to Danny Boyle, his stunningly accomplished Dublin-set ensemble piece is a true original.
A charcoal-black romantic comedy, "Intermission" keeps the audience pleasantly buzzed and on its toes by mix-and-matching so many conflicting moods and quicksilver emotions, you're never quite sure what sort of movie you're watching.
The opening scene is a doozy. Lehiff (Colin Farrell) struts into a neighborhood diner where he proceeds to chat up the cashier in what appears to be an obvious seduction gambit.
Suddenly, without warning or provocation, this blarney hooligan lashes out and punches this unsuspecting colleen in the noggin, not once but twice. Turns out that Lehiff wasn't coming on to her after all -- he just wanted to rob the joint.
What happens next
After two cops walk in on the attempted hold-up, a foot chase ensues that's as exhilarating as the classic scene in "A Hard Day's Night" where the Beatles are giddily pursued through the streets of London by screaming teenage fans.
It's just that sort of live-wire unpredictability that makes "Intermission" such a bracing jolt of pure cinematic adrenalin.
Farrell may be the best-known actor here, but Lehiff isn't really the central character. The closest thing to a protagonist is supermarket stock boy John (nicely played by Cillian Murphy from "28 Days Later" and "Girl With a Pearl Earring").
Still grieving over a recent breakup with his longtime girlfriend Deidre (Kelly Macdonald) -- she refers to it as an "intermission" in their relationship -- John allows himself to be hoodwinked into joining a bank heist being cooked up by Lehiff. Since the bank's smug Yuppie manager (Michael McElhatton) just happens to be Deidre's new live-in beau, vengeance becomes part of the overall equation.
Among the too-numerous-to-mention lads and lassies jostling for screen time are crooked cop (and Lehiff's nemesis) Jerry (Colm Meaney); Deidre's kid sister, Sally (Shirley Henderson), a mopey, unlucky-in-love type whose "mustache" is the source of some malicious jokes; Noeleen (Deidre O'Kane), the jilted wife of Deidre's lover; a demon seed of a kid (Taylor Malloy) who always seems to be in the right place at the wrong time to do the most damage; Mick (Brian F. O'Bryne), the laid-off bus driver who joins Lehiff's crew; and Oscar (David Wilmot), John's perpetually horny best mate who unexpectedly clicks with Noeleen after a bout of casual sex.
Lots of surprises
Like Tarantino, Crowley and screenwriter Mark O'Rowe revel in spinning a crime yarn replete with colorful characters and colloquialisms, and so many twists and turns that you'll never see half of them coming.
The Leigh equation stems from the "caught-on-the-fly" minidramas that occupy most of the cast. And Boyle generously supplies the movie with its signature look: herky-jerky, shot-on-digital-video graininess decorated with splashes of insane color.
What makes Crowley's achievement so impressive is that he manages to cobble together all of these seemingly diverse "samplings," yet still creates something utterly unique. "Intermission" is a battered and bruised screwball romance with a heart as big, and ravaged, as Ireland itself.
XWrite Milan Paurich at milanpaurich@aol.com.