Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

listen, to be honest i am actually writing this as i am watching the film. i only gave it a 5 out of ten because i am not finished watching it.i don't even know if i will finish it if Kim Cattrall keeps coming into screen. how could not one person tell her that she doesn't sound Irish. and if she is speaking with an Irish accent i would love to know what county she is supposed to be from. why the hell would you hire a muck actor from America to play a roll that even someone from fair city could have pulled off.i wish there was a way that i could actually ask Kim, what she was thinking when she was jabbering on in a funky accent.thats the worst thing about foreign actors, mainly American playing Irish and Brit's on screen, they cant do it. except John Voight in "The General", great job he done.any how, this isn't really a review more a rant, i just needed to share it.

This is the very first time I have made a comment on a movie. If this superb production had received the excellent reviews that it so richly deserves then I would not have bothered. I can not recall the last time I was so engrossed by a story so well told. Each of the characters become real people encouraged by by a script which appears so simple and natural but yet allows all the superb players to add depth, feeling and emotion to the flawed yet heroic individuals who inhabit this tale. After watching this I felt as if I had just finished reading a novel ( a medium which usually allows greater empathy with well drawn characters). I found that the 'crowd' scenes both extremely funny and yet deeply poignant. Each extra has an 'over the top' tom an jerry role to play yet each character is a parody of real people in real situations that are played out on the towns and cities of Ireland every night of the week. As W.B Yeats said 'A Terrible beauty is born'. As you may have guessed I am Irish .. I could recognise the character of Ireland in this drama. The strenghs, weaknesses and joy of our nation are evident in this production. I presume John Boreman is an American. I salute him for capturing the soul of our nation and not once mention little green men with a crock of gold. Well done.

I have read some of the different opinions here and I concede that some of the points made could be relevant to this film. Most modern films do very little for me (I've been filmgoing since the 1950's) but I really enjoyed this film immensely with the possible exception of the way the "situation" was resolved in the end. However, most people could probably think of a hundred ways to end this one so I accept the one chosen. The acting was first class, Seamus Deasy's photography was spot on and Stephen McKeon's wonderful score raised it all a notch or two. What a refreshing break from the ear-bashing, grossly offensive noise that passes for film music these days. I give it 7 because, quite simply, I enjoyed it and that's what counts in the end, not who didn't speak very well, who was or wasn't liked in it and how bad Irish society is today.

Just as Brendan Gleeson's character comes face to face with his mysterious double in "The Tiger's Tail", having seen the movie I am wondering if John Boorman himself has a doppelganger who directed this Hammer-style turkey. Where is the director of "Deliverance", "Point Blank" and "The General"? He's certainly not behind the camera lens in scenes where a supposedly famous property developer is charged in court with a plethora of offenses, yet his double is down the road running his property empire in his name and not even the most buffoonish of cops, judiciary, gutter press and nosy old ladies take one whit of notice; he's not present whenever Kim Cattrall speaks, her accent veering within scenes between Samantha's from SATC and Sean Connery's in "The Untouchables"; and he couldn't possibly have approved the unbelievably cozy pat and self-indulgent ending which leaves numerous significant story threads left hanging.The film is supposed to be a commentary on the dark side of the Irish economic boom and the ham fisted manner in which its benefits have been consumed and distributed. However the dogmatic exposition of these points within numerous scenes (and an appearance by a well known pseud Irish restaurant critic) confirms the movie as being cynically and deliberately designed to appeal to mid 1980s Irish social democrats who fought for change against a right wing Catholic Church and puppet government through the medium of a liberal, self-knowing and self-reverential press. They now find that winning the battle meant also losing their prized high moral ground and glowing (self) adoration. This wasn't part of the master plan at all. They can't take the fact that economic growth for all means no one pays them a smidgen of attention or glory anymore and Boorman has made this movie especially for them.Round this out with a padding of grizzled Irish acting washouts desperate for a paycheck and a "marriage movies and motherhood" article in a Sunday news-rag and you have what possibly is the most cynical, elitist and artistically challenged Irish movie of modern times.