Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

krisztyxx The movie Jimmy's hall is a man's fight against the authority, a man's fight to freedom. Freedom to himself and to the community. When Jimmy Gralton returns home, he found itself the same problems, wherefore to left the country many years ago. Nothing is change only the characters on the scene. The youth want to do the same things, what Jimmy and his friends did years ago. They want to be free and want to be enjoy free the dance, learning, theatre, reading. He drop in parallel events, as it happened is his youth. Jimmy tried to fight again, the power and the oppression. He see in the young people himself, that is the reason he tried to fight again. The movie is a perfect instantiated to the one man, a revolutionary battle to the totally oppression. He always hope he win, but is impossible at all. No man on earth, who can't win this kind of dictatorial power. That is the reason we can respect Jimmy Gralton, he know, in deep inside in his soul he never win, but he try and try again, when everything is seems hopeless he keep going and fight. The Jimmy's hall a great example of the man contend contra the authority.

wordsmiths_communication For me, there are two things at work here. One is the movie itself, and the other is the message in the movie. You can have an important message present in a less than brilliant film. This film is very good, but it's message is even greater. Now, in February 2016, Bernie Sanders is campaigning for president on the platform of ending Wall Street and banking abuses. He's campaigning for a decent livable minimum wage, and for universal health care. It has always been a struggle between the haves and have-nots. Jimmy is a symbol of all who strive to survive while living in the midst of oppression by the 1%. The photography in the film is first-rate, with many scenes full of rich side-lighting reminding me of Vermeer. The cast is flawless and their daily struggles very true to life. There is no scene chewing, and most performances are quietly real and effective. It was a moving and rewarding experience. On a side note, I came away with tremendous respect for the Irish character. In the midst of hardship in Jimmy's hall, the poor celebrated their true culture, their music, poetry, and dance. It's really a human tragedy that we must play out the same struggle in America 84 years later. Only now it's the conflict between the poor who must drink poisoned water in Flint, while the "Lords" scheme to get more money and power in the Koch brothers boardroom. It will always be so.

jdesando "We need to take control of our lives again. Work for need, not for greed. And not just to survive like a dog, but to live. And to celebrate. And to dance, to sing, as free human beings." James Gralton (Barry Ward) Jimmy's Hall depicts an Irish dance hall, Pearse-Connolly Hall, made by the people as a Depression-era testimony to their will to be free human beings. Such a spirit, embodied in true-life by James Gralton, who built the structure and suffered for it, is in almost every beautiful frame of a romantic-realist film that cries out for the common man.Oh, yeah, it's class struggles again, as if we don't have it still in America. In Jimmy's Hall, the people have dirt on their hands and worn clothes on their backs, but they have an indomitable spirit that exists always despite major oppression from the likes of England and the Catholic Church. The dance segments and theme may evoke Kevin Bacon in Footloose, but this film goes beyond dance into metaphysical rebellion.Only too real is the divide between the haves and the have not's, which today manifests itself in the form of the 1 percent super rich and self-centered legislators. Donald Trump would be an appropriate reference for the rich and some Southern senators for the legislators. In any case, those of us on the low side of the 99% can identify.In this film, the rebellion is aimed squarely on the Catholic Church, embodied in the local pastor antagonist, Father Sheridan (Jim Norton), who mistakenly labels Gralton and his followers "communists," although they want only freedom and dance for everyone. It's the empowerment of the working class that endangers the absolute rule of the Catholic hierarchy, in cahoots with local power brokers, one of whom flogs his teen daughter for participating in the hall. Norton as the powerful prelate steals the picture, except that Ward as Gralton could become the coolest romantic hero in modern cinema.Jimmy's Hall is a different kind of rebellion epic because Jimmy is not murdered, and considerable violence is reserved for the hall itself. Deportation is a sort of punishment particularly painful for a people so closely defined by their land.So the emphasis then is on the oppression of the mind (the Depression has the corner on violence to the welfare of the common man everywhere). For the Irish, a people deeply imbued in culture and specifically music and poetry, the film draws us to their charisma and grit, a beautiful evocation of spirit.The love between Jimmy and erstwhile sweetheart Oonagh (Simone Kirby) is as good as you'll get in any film, especially where dance plays such an erotic and symbolic part. Spoiler: They never kiss! Don't miss this beguiling and involving historical romance about a great people: "The reason the Irish are always fighting each other is they have no other worthy opponents." Irish Proverb

Paul Allaer "Jimmy's Hall" (2014 release from Ireland/UK; 109 min.) brings the true story of what happened to Jimmy Gralton upon his return to Ireland in 1932. the movie's opening titles are accompanied by archive footage of New York in the late 20s/early 30s. As the movie opens, we are told it is "County Leitrim, Ireland, 1932", and we see Jimmy coming back to Ireland after 20 years in New York (presumably because of the Depression and related unemployment). It's not long before Jimmy and his friends decide to renovate the Pears-Connelly Hall, so as to give young people and the community a place to gather for dancing, reading, drawing, singing, etc. (we would call it a "community rec center" these days). This does not sit well with the local priest, who claims 'exclusivity' for all things that could be deemed educational, nor are the local landlords pleased. At this point we are 15 min. into the movie, but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is the latest movie be legendary British director Ken Loach, now a crisp 79 years young (and similar to Woody Allen in his never-ceasing output). Loach is well-known for using his films as social commentary, and "Jimmy's Hall" is no exception. For me, that is not an issue, and Loach has made a number of stunningly beautiful and captivating movies over the years. Hence I was ready to like "Jimmy's Hall" very much. Alas, it was not to be, for several reasons: first, the movie is not very helpful to let us understand why certain factions take a particular position (we are never told what beef the landlords have with Jimmy and his friends) or why the issue of the land ownership matters initially, and then a bit later on it doesn't. But the biggest disappointment I have with the film is that at no point did I become emotionally invested in any of the main characters. Yes the local priest is easy to loathe, and we all do, but we are not given a chance to really buy in to Jimmy, or his friends, or his romantic interest. It all just happens, for seemingly no reason. If this was a fictional story, I'd have walked out an hour into the movie, but since this movie is "inspired by the life and times of Jimmy Gralton" (as is announced at the beginning of the movie), I wanted to find out how it would all unfold. There are some fine performances, but I found the chemistry between Jimmy (played by Barry Ward) and his romantic interest (played by Francis Magee) completely lacking and unconvincing. Last but certainly not least, there is a very nice musical score to the movie, featuring both traditional Irish music and jazz from the 20s and 30s.I had seen the trailer for "Jimmy's Hall" a few times and was really looking forward to this. "Jimmy's Hall" finally opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The early evening screening where I saw this at was attended okay but not great (I counted 12 people, including myself, of which one walked out halfway through and didn't come back). As much as I like Ken Loach, this is not none of his best, I'm afraid. But I certainly encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater, on Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion about "Jimmy's Hall".