Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

A Disappointing Continuation

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Just consider the start : a horse-car stops about 50 yards from the house it as to deliver luggage. Guess what... does the car approaches the house more after leaving the impatient passenger jumping out ? No it stays there and the driver takes the big luggage out and hardly makes its way to the 50 yards house. This is bad cinema from start to end... How can such a bad thing come to reality ?... Only because it's so meaningful to the guy that believes in his story, that he completely looses focus on others interest. This is an inside bleeding story that makes its creator become sterile... This has to be an accident. This is useless. This is a waist of time.

"We need to take control of our lives again. Work for need, not for greed. And not just to survive like a dog, but to live. And to celebrate. And to dance, to sing, as free human beings." James Gralton (Barry Ward) Jimmy's Hall depicts an Irish dance hall, Pearse-Connolly Hall, made by the people as a Depression-era testimony to their will to be free human beings. Such a spirit, embodied in true-life by James Gralton, who built the structure and suffered for it, is in almost every beautiful frame of a romantic-realist film that cries out for the common man.Oh, yeah, it's class struggles again, as if we don't have it still in America. In Jimmy's Hall, the people have dirt on their hands and worn clothes on their backs, but they have an indomitable spirit that exists always despite major oppression from the likes of England and the Catholic Church. The dance segments and theme may evoke Kevin Bacon in Footloose, but this film goes beyond dance into metaphysical rebellion.Only too real is the divide between the haves and the have not's, which today manifests itself in the form of the 1 percent super rich and self-centered legislators. Donald Trump would be an appropriate reference for the rich and some Southern senators for the legislators. In any case, those of us on the low side of the 99% can identify.In this film, the rebellion is aimed squarely on the Catholic Church, embodied in the local pastor antagonist, Father Sheridan (Jim Norton), who mistakenly labels Gralton and his followers "communists," although they want only freedom and dance for everyone. It's the empowerment of the working class that endangers the absolute rule of the Catholic hierarchy, in cahoots with local power brokers, one of whom flogs his teen daughter for participating in the hall. Norton as the powerful prelate steals the picture, except that Ward as Gralton could become the coolest romantic hero in modern cinema.Jimmy's Hall is a different kind of rebellion epic because Jimmy is not murdered, and considerable violence is reserved for the hall itself. Deportation is a sort of punishment particularly painful for a people so closely defined by their land.So the emphasis then is on the oppression of the mind (the Depression has the corner on violence to the welfare of the common man everywhere). For the Irish, a people deeply imbued in culture and specifically music and poetry, the film draws us to their charisma and grit, a beautiful evocation of spirit.The love between Jimmy and erstwhile sweetheart Oonagh (Simone Kirby) is as good as you'll get in any film, especially where dance plays such an erotic and symbolic part. Spoiler: They never kiss! Don't miss this beguiling and involving historical romance about a great people: "The reason the Irish are always fighting each other is they have no other worthy opponents." Irish Proverb

"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".

There are many movies made about oppression, but not nearly enough. In this story based on facts and one man's intention to give culture, song and dance to his small, impoverished community, it defies belief that this travesty of injustice occurred.As usual, the Catholic Church, the overlords and the unjust legal system come together to destroy any chance a small community has of the vital birth-right of culture and harmony for those who need it most; an isolated county in Ireland.As one man steps up, after having been deported once already for the grand crime of opening a hall where people can learn such basic things as song, dance, art, literature and boxing, after his ten first ten year deportation, the local youth who have nothing to look forward to in life, convince him to do so again.This is a straightforward movie about a circumstance that defies belief, and yet it occurred. Worth the watch for anyone who understands that oppression and fascism is wrong and that normal people deserve joy, community and to fight back when their world makes no sense on account of simply wanting to life a life.