To me, this movie is perfection.

Boring

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I definitely sought this out because I was a big fan of the director's recent film Room. His directorial hand is sort of similar here, in terms of giving a lot of weight and true significant to the little details in character interactions, and in terms of each half of the film being primarily centered around a different development (although the first half of this is basically set-up and character development so the second half hits harder, and boy does it do a great job of that). I thought all of the performances here were very refined and pretty realistic. The actors do a great job of really inhabiting their characters and making the most out of small moments with he director's help. Overall, very effective film, moves along nicely and a very powerful morality act. That ending is genius.

This is as slow moving and as unsatisfying as "Garage", the other Lenny Abrahamson film I have had the misfortune to see. The problem with his films is that there are long scenes with no dialogue, and the story barely moves along. Even the incident which changes the lives of the characters is very slight, when it happens. There has been a lot of praise given for Jack Reynor's performance. I didn't think much of it. He didn't come across that convincingly. He had a breakdown and he cried a lot. So what. If that's considered superb acting, then blow me down with a feather. He doesn't deliver his dialogue with much conviction. There's lots of hugging going on and the word "man" said a lot. The bulk of the cast are most unlikeable. The one actor in it that I thought was quite good was Lars Mikkelsen as the father. I don't think I will ever sit through this film again. It was 87 minutes long and felt like an eternity

This movie is set In Ireland but is not a particularly 'Irish' film - the underlying theme is universal (the eternal triangle) and it could have been set almost anywhere. There is some reasonable acting and occasional sequences of lush camera-work, but the film is let down by a weak plot, dull script and ponderous pace.Richard is a well-off teenager who swears and drinks a lot. He is popular among his peers for his looks, self-confidence and access to his parents' beach house. He takes up with the girlfriend of one of his pals and they have sex. Later at a party the two lads get into a fight over the girl and a drunken Richard hits him once too often, taking the lad's life. In collusion with his father, he runs away and hides until he realises that his guilt is too much to bear and that he must give himself up to the police. Returning home to hand himself in, he resumes his studies and finds another girl for perfunctory sex. Whereupon he appears to have forgotten about confessing after all . . . and the credits roll.The movie starts very slowly with lengthy and tedious scenes of Richard and his mates chilling out together, real enough but reality and drama make uneasy bedfellows. Nothing really happens until Richard gets into the fight, but even then there is little to make us like him enough to care what fate befalls him thereafter. He has committed manslaughter and he knows it so his decision to lie and hide just makes him look a coward. So when he 'breaks down' - an embarrassing scene in which he does a lot of screeching and breast-beating - it is hard to have much sympathy. It's not as if he's murdered anyone and faces life imprisonment or worse. A good lawyer would help . . . but these and other practicalities are never considered by him nor his father and (barely seen) mother. Having decided to do 'the right thing', Richard then appears to abandon his intent and return to a life of self-indulgence. Perplexing!So the story is more about what Richard did not do than what he did. Perhaps his parents should have told him a lot earlier to grow up and get a life!Unfortunately, it's hard to recommend this movie.(Viewed at The Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK, 31.01.13)

This movie is a slow moving drama that puts its "hero" in a horrific moral dilemma of his own making and examines his actions. I found it impossible not to wonder what I would do if I was in a similar position, which I presume is what the director wanted.The main character, Richard, seems to have it all. He is a young man from a privileged Dublin background who has just finished secondary school. He was captain of the school rugby team and is universally liked by everyone. He seems set for an enjoyable summer before he starts university. At a party he meets the girlfriend of a teammate. He "fancies" her and after a while they start going out.At a later party Richard and the ex-boyfriend exchange harsh words and things soon get out of hand and the ex-boyfriend dies. The authorities don't know who is responsible. Richard has to decide what he will do. We watch him wrestle with the dilemma of giving up his rosy future by admitting the truth or doing nothing and hoping it will all fade away.There are great performances all round from the cast, especially Jack Reynor in the lead role. Lenny Abrahamson is one of the great Irish directors with movies such as "Garage" and "Adam and Paul" and this movie is up to that high standard.