Events
The Ultimate Event Guide for the FrankfurtRhineMain Metropolitan Region
March 2024
  • Mo
  • Tu
  • We
  • Th
  • Fr
  • Sa
  • Su
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
Jimmy's Hall

Jimmy's Hall

Großbritannien/Irland 2014 - with Barry Ward, Simone Kirby, Jim Norton, Aisling Franciosi, Aileen Henry ...

The Frankfurt-Tipp rating:

Movie info

Original title:Jimmy`s Hall
Genre:Drama
Direction:Ken Loach
Cinema release:14.08.2014
Production country:Großbritannien/Irland 2014
Running time:Approx. 109 min.
Rated:Age 6+
Web page:www.jimmys-hall.pandorafilm.com

For ten years, Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward) lived in exile in the United States. In 1932, he finally returns to his native Ireland. But in his small home village Jimmy is not only welcomed with open arms. For the arch-conservative followers of the church, the man who had created a sinful place in their eyes with the dance hall Pearse-Connolly Hall, Gralton is a troublemaker whose harmful ideas must be nipped in the bud. For many young people, on the other hand, Jimmy is a symbol of hope and resistance, and his dance hall a place where repressed dreams can be lived out. That's why the young free spirits hope that the dance hall will reopen after Jimmy's return. But really, the returnee doesn't want to mess with the church again. But when he realizes how much every joy and every artistic freedom is suppressed here, the resistance fighter in him flares up again. Together with a group of old and new allies, he rebuilds Pearse-Connolly Hall. But it is not long before he feels the full force of his opponents` fury.

Jimmy`s Hall, after the rather light comedy Angel`s Share - A Sip for the Angels, is again a typical Ken Loach film, which in some ways can be seen as a continuation of his 2006 drama The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Again he tells a story inspired by true events, this time set ten years after the events of The Wind that shakes the Barley. One line in particular from the Palme d'Or-winning drama is reflected here, when an Anglo-Irish landowner says, "This country will become a hole infested with priests. The power of the church on an economic as well as political level then also plays the central role in Jimmy`s Hall, whereby Loach was at pains to draw neither the freedom fighter nor the priests too one-dimensionally or even caricature-like. Even if one can accuse the film of a certain black-and-white painting in the depiction of good and evil, he has quite succeeded in making the character of Father Sheridan, played excellently by Jim Norton, seem quite nuanced.

Overall, Loach has again succeeded in creating a very engaging social study that also tells a very interesting and exciting story. What sets Jimmy`s Hall apart from Loach`s previous works in this regard is that for all the drama and atmospheric heaviness, he also displays a certain lightness that prevents the viewer from being sucked into a gray moody low here. Even if this may have been at the expense of profundity and ambition, the result is that this drama, unlike most other Loach films, is also accessible to a somewhat wider audience.

In addition to its intense imagery and some stirring moments, the film also has a few extremely beautiful scenes to offer, in which one can simply take a breath and is not only emotionally and intellectually challenged. This, in turn, makes it easier for viewers who are rather inexperienced in heavy program cinema fare to get emotionally involved in the story and be swept along by the events. But even if there is some lightness and you can even laugh heartily in one scene, in the end Jimmy`s Hall is not really easy fare. But it is worth getting involved with Loach`s sometimes unwieldy style, as the story of Jimmy Gralton and Pearse-Connolly Hall is worth seeing if only because it is unfortunately still full of topicality, but at the same time inspires you to dream and hope. A stirring arthouse drama that is not only worth seeing for loyal Ken Loach fans!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp

Media:

  • Jimmy's Hall
  • Jimmy's Hall
  • Jimmy's Hall
  • Jimmy's Hall
  • Jimmy's Hall
Cinema trailer for the movie "Jimmy's Hall (Großbritannien/Irland 2014)"
Loading the player ...