The Journey

I was intrigued enough by the subject matter to see the film and was very glad that I did. Although some of the episodes seemed contrived (particularly running out of gas after getting a flat tire), the emotions and issues were very real and Colm Meaney and Timothy Spall do a fabulous job of portraying the real people on both sides of the Northern Ireland civil war. What does it take for two former enemies to make peace with each other? One answer here is the ability to see each other as human beings.

What it lacks in authenticity is more than made up for by its fictional though thoughtful debates of the issues at the heart of the Northern Ireland peace process, why it took so long to resolve and the remarkable steps it took to bring about a workable solution. Add to that the sizzling performances of Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney, and you've got a riveting series of dialogues that, in lesser hands, might easily have come off as a dry, plodding history lesson. While I usually have issues with films that take such blatant dramatic license, and even though the writing and narrative occasionally go wildly off the rails, this inventive take on this subject matter satisfies immensely without ever becoming tedious or pretentious. There's more here than many of the dismissive accounts contend, and that's worth watching -- and perhaps applying when circumstances merit.