FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Mike B This is a most convincing film; particularly the performance by Gerard McSorley as the father of the son who is murdered by the IRA. But really all the actors and settings give an authentic feel. This film could easily gone have over the top with histrionics, but it always does provide a strong emotional persuasiveness through-out.The film resonates without being overly political and the main purpose is to show how terrorist violence devastates not just one family – but several families. We follow as they try to obtain justice and bring to trial the murderers. They weave through Northern Ireland politics to attempt a closure on this dreadful act of terror. Unfortunately they never found it.

gelman@attglobal.net I never heard of Peter Travis prior to "Omagh" but the direction in this film deserves more than equal billing with Gerard McSorley, who stars the bereaved father who becomes chairman of the Omagh Support Group. The mounting tension at the start of the film as the bomb is positioned, the police are warned and the crowd on the High Street is herded to the spot where the explosion takes place is enough to take your breath away. It doesn't matter in the least that the accents are difficult for these American ears to understand at the film's beginning because you somehow know exactly what's happening at every moment. The frantic search for the missing son, the dawning realization that he has died, the intense grief, the formation of the Omagh Support Group with McSorley emerging as its leader, the effort to ensure that the investigation is pursued, the determination of the politicians that the incident not be allowed to derail "the peace process," the evasions and downright lies of the police, the mysterious emergence of the truth, the condemnation of police conduct by the police ombudswoman -- all are rendered with controlled intensity that never flags. One device that Travis and his cameraman use repeatedly to great effect is the extreme closeup in which a portion of the character's face is shown, framed usually at an artful angle that a skilled portrait photographer might adopt for a still picture. Those pictures capture the emotions of the characters with particular force. The tragedy of Omagh is brought alive to devastating effect. Don't let the fact that it was made for TV deter you from seeing this superb movie.

ken_westmoreland The opening scene where the explosive is being mixed and the car number plates are switched was like looking through the bombers' eyes. Seeing a maroon Vauxhall Cavalier parked on the street, and hearing kids talking Spanish was like watching it happen again. That's what realism in film is about.Of course this wouldn't have been shown in US movie theatres because it doesn't portray the IRA as swashbuckling heroes like "The Devil's Own" did, although "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" does that, and probably won't get shown either. I can't understand why anyone would need to have background information to the conflict in Northern Ireland as explanation- was Bloody Sunday justification for it? Judging by the number of Catholics killed and maimed in Omagh that day, I don't think so.

rcashdan Fortunately I had the opportunity to see this film in Mexico. Its powerful recreation of an actual event was underscored by its sympathetic portrayal of everyday life in Northern Ireland. I was impressed that the violence on screen was limited to the explosion. The sequencing of the movie was outstanding, beginning with the assassins driving through the hills to Omagh, shifting to a father and son working together in the town, and then into the center of the town itself. Although the locale was one small town, of course its theme applies to all too many parts of the world these days. One interesting detail is that the faces looked familiar but that isn't surprising because many Americans are descended from the Scotch-Irish who settled in Northern Ireland.