***
Running time: 129 mins
In stores: Today
Review: Ewan McDonald
More Irish connections, more lying and schemeing. Martin Cahill was Ireland's most famous professional criminal, a man who stole from the rich and gave to himself. He was shot in 1994 by the IRA, proving in that divided country the one thing more dangerous than crime is politics (though their disagreement was over Cahill muscling in on the drug trade).
The maker of this black-and-white biopic, John Boorman (Deliverance, Excalibur), had a brush with Cahill. He broke into Boorman's house and stole the gold record for Dueling Banjos, though Cahill was disgusted to find it was not real gold.
Unfortunately for this movie, Cahill was not the crook with a heart of gold, admired even by the police who tried to nail him, who is portrayed. He was a vicious thug and cheat, who was married to one sister, had an affair with another, and children by both.
Glamourising his trade takes away from superb performances by Brendan Gleeson as Cahill, and weakens the character of the policeman trailing him (Jon Voight in one of his best outings in recent times).
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