It’s the early ’70s and Anton O’Neill (Anthony Fox) has returned from sea to find his native Co. Cavan now blighted by the ‘Troubles’ up the road. Already minded to take action against occupying forces, when his wife (Laura Way) suffers a miscarriage after a skirmish at a British checkpoint, he sets out with the intention of assisting the IRA, only to fall foul of the leadership, the Garda (headed up by crooked cop Gerard McSorley) and his own family.
There’s a galloping true story at the heart of Anthony Fox’s screenplay. It is not, unhappily, one that translates well into film. Anton’s adventures may take in a prison break, a sojourn with the Parisian underground, a Mexican stand off and disquieting truths about cross-border security arrangements, but too often the protagonist’s fate is in the lap of the gods, far beyond the mechanics required for a movie hero’s journey.
Truth in cinema is never as literal minded as it appears here.
Elsewhere we find sins of omission, as Anton, both the guy and the film, fails to engage with political context and historical circumstance. There is no sense of the title character becoming swept up in revolutionary fervour or succumbing to disillusionment. We are told he is, but telling is always a poor substitute for showing.
To be fair, Mr. Fox (who also stars) and his director Graham Cantwell have pulled off quite a coup here. Their decently performed and suitably moody looking film, made for a small, privately sourced sum, represents two years of toil and hustle. They are to be congratulated for making it across the finish line and on the film’s wide release. Let’s see where they go from here.