Route Irish

ROUTE IRISH
ARTIFICIAL EYE
RELEASED 18 March 2011
Iraq continues to be fertile ground for screenwriters, but I never would have expected to see an Iraq movie based almost exclusively in Liverpool. I guess that’s what makes Ken Loach and regular screenwriter Paul Laverty’s films just that bit different.
Fergus (Mark Womack) is in Liverpool for the funeral of his lifelong friend Frankie (John Bishop), a fellow ex-soldier and recent private security contractor who has been killed on ‘Route Irish’, the road between Baghdad airport and the Green Zone. A mobile phone belonging to Frankie has disturbing evidence on it, and Fergus is convinced Frankie’s death wasn’t accidental and starts asking the security forces some uncomfortable questions.
I don’t think I can remember any of the Iraq movies that have come out so far (‘Green Zone’, ‘The Hurt Locker’) that have been as tense as ‘Route Irish’ is by merely relying on dialogue. Paul Laverty (‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’) crafts the screenplay with plenty of research into current events most of us know little about. With most of the film based in Liverpool and featuring very little action, it’s a thriller movie with the horrible knowledge that it’s probably much close to the truth than we’d like. The tension arises purely from Fergus digging around where people don’t want him. As he delves deeper and deeper, the stakes rise and the line between the good guys and the bad guys quickly blurs.
Mark Womack dominates the movie, and it’s a harrowing, wrought performance. Andrea Lowe plays the anguished widow, and as the movie progresses, more and more rough-looking blokes turn up!
Ken Loach has directed another fine movie, more about greed and power in times of conflict than it is about actual warfare.
THREE OUT OF FIVE