Intelligent Reviewing A variant Drug-ee Midnight Cowboy in Rain Drenched Dublin, two dun-fer deadheads work out how to spend the remaining hours in their own personal hell. There's some very consummate acting from the two lead roles,and lots of lovely character acting, an unashamed range of strong urban Dublin accents, some nicely comedic situations and relations, some nice bits of cinematography and some touching moments, worthy of viewing for those accepting of its strong themes of addiction poverty and no hope grime, though there some similarities between this and midnight cowboy, its updated for the modern age and stands elements on its head without too strongly pulling on the emotional levers that are obviously available, and the truth is this story is perpetual and endless, we tend to iconify and re-project that small proportion who win, but the opposite portion are the truer story, the ending was inversed and more modernist and harder to swallow, but true enough to itself. A tale for those who understand the dark end of the street is in nearly every town everywhere.

runamokprods Funny, bleak, sad, absurdist look at a day in the life two Dublin heroin addicts. It's more 'Waiting for Godot' than 'Trainspotting'. Two wonderful lead performances by Tom Murphy and Mark O'Halloran as a sort of dark, drug addled Laurel and Hardy.It's terrifically shot, with wonderful wide angle images of our two anti-heroes tramping through the urban jungle. The ending wasn't quite as powerful for me as I think it was meant to be, and a few twists felt a bit forced. But weeks after seeing it, images and moments stick in my mind. Always the sign of a good film.Great to see that director Lenny Abrahamson continued to grow and make very strong films after this, including "What Richard Did", "Frank" and the Oscar nominated "Room", the last two finally garnering him some well deserved recognition beyond his homeland.

ericalynn1976 I can see where this movie would be rather difficult for people who have never had an addiction of *any* sort to understand. I however have never actually met *anyone* who has never been touched in some way by addiction...too alcohol, drugs, gambling, shopping, eating what have you...I was once *very* close to where Adam and Paul were...actually I was *exactly*where they were! Thankfully, for me, my story had a much happier ending then theirs but reading the other reviews it was very clear the people who are empathetic for people with addictions and those who are not....you know who you are! I really think if you can get off of your high horse long enough...a mere 83 minutes! You will *Love this movie*!

flics I saw this film twice and I really enjoyed it. I think that you cannot really compare it with Cowboys and Angels or Intermission (both of which I enjoyed) because it is much more surreal at times, the script is much less plot-driven and more focused on characters. It taps into a different cinematic tradition, much more 'European' than either of those two film. O'Halloran has an ear for language and accent, and allowing his characters to say some beautiful (simple) things: Paul says, frustrated, 'why can't things be easy, why can't we just be...relaxed'. It's not just about heroin addicts - it's about Dublin's invisible population, post-Celtic Tiger, those we don't want to deal with. The guy from Bulgaria takes some abuse from them and he replies 'who are you?', meaning they, i.e. two Irish men, are every bit as undesirable as he is. The humour in the film often consists of laughter that shocks you. The film is drawn out partly because the day in the life of an addict is very long and finding a score is SO important to them. The shock at my own relief when they did score was very apt in the film and I think skilfully done. It never preaches, just lets these sad characters be themselves. The cinematography is beautiful: Dublin comes out as a city of contradictions, with dirty back streets - where the Down's Syndrome boy is robbed - are juxtaposed with the flashy new 'Millenium Bridge', where Adam and Paul enjoy their hit. I do not consider this an "Irish" film and that is not why I would recommend it: it is beautifully scripted, acted and directed. It is just a great movie.