“Intermission” (2003)
The debut feature of theater director John Crowley (whose “Brooklyn” should be a major player in the awards season later this year), “Intermission” is exactly the sort of film that should sink a neophyte: a sprawling ensemble piece mired in an unshakeable (and to some audiences, incomprehensible) Dublin argot. Instead, Crowley makes a virtue of the film’s cultural specificity, taking advantage of the sweeping scope by casting a literal who’s-who of Irish (and Scottish) acting talent, and investing each of the story’s many interlocking strands with a kind of authenticity it’s rare to see in a black comedy. But punchiest (literally) and most memorable of all the many roles is Farrell’s petty criminal Lehiff, particularly his first scene, which opens the film. In it, we meet Lehiff charming the pants off a coyly smiling shopgirl, talking in that recognizably Irish mix of the lyrical and the profane regarding romance and soulmates and such things, prior to punching her full in the face and pillaging the till. It’s a dark, funny, lightning-quick pivot that not only sets the tone for the film to come, but encapsulates the gamut of Farrell’s abilities in a couple of minutes and embodies the very epicenter of his appeal: he can be handsome, charming and softly appealing with those big brown eyes beneath those expressive brows, but simultaneously he has a thread of volatility and nervous energy that could very well manifest in thuggish violence. This role also marked Farrell’s first real return to Dublin (not counting the very brief “Veronica Guerin” cameo) and his first time working with an Irish director since his Hollywood breakout, and it’s a pleasure to see him relax into the language and cadences of a well-written, gift-of-the-gab Dublin character, rather than trying to suppress his accent or fit it onto a character it simply doesn’t suit. Both his performance and the film itself deserve a much warmer box office reception than it got.
See Also: Another of Farrell’s collaborations with an Irish director bore fruit in 2009 with the similarly little-seen, financially underperforming “Ondine” from Neil Jordan. It’s a difficult role, required to anchor a mystical, dreamy story in some sense of the real, but Farrell’s inherent earthiness works to balance the films more whimsical tendencies, and makes it an offbeat charmer that’s a win in the uneven filmographies of both director and star.
“In Bruges” (2008)
For whatever reason, prior to 2008 it was really only Irish directors who could see Farrell’s comedic potential. More recently, a few Hollywood productions have let him explore a more tongue-in-cheek side to his persona (“Horrible Bosses” and “Fright Night” for example), but before that in American films, he was largely squeezed into straight-up hero or classic villain roles. It was “In Bruges” that changed all that. From British/Irish director Martin McDonagh, who’d already had massive transatlantic success with plays like “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” and “The Cripple of Inishmaan” and had already won an Academy Award for his short film “Six Shooter,” the hitman black comedy was not just the arrival of an exciting new director, but also marked a refreshing change of pace for Farrell, whose split personality of rugged charm, soulfulness and hair-trigger volatility found its most perfect vehicle to date. As Ray, the haunted hitman sent to cool his heels in Belgium along with his partner Ken (Brendan Gleeson) following a botched job, Farrell is truly terrific: hangdog, self-centered, irritating, explosive but with a kernel of rusty goodness inside him that makes his friendship with Ken and his inchoate hunger for some sort of redemption genuinely affecting. But it also mines his little-showcased talent for verbal dexterity, which Farrell is certainly most at home with when he can use his natural accent, as here, but which requires more than just an Irish passport to be able to pull off. In fact, McDonagh’s hyperreal, quickfire verbosity would probably sound like gravel in a cement mixer in most mouths, even those of other Irish actors, but with Farrell’s shifty quick-wittedness, it sounds as natural as breathing. And furthermore Farrell gives Ray a soulfulness that belies the verbal dash and makes what could be a clinical exercise in cleverness into something with a little more heart. “In Bruges” was the first film that truly overturned the idea of Farrell as a middling actor: as good as the script is (and it was Oscar-nominated), Farrell’s take on it makes it an even better film.
See Also: Farrell would reteam with McDonagh on his follow-up “Seven Psychopaths” (2012), a very flawed film in which self-awareness of its faults (characters talk about the lack of well-written women, the difficulties of staging a final act shootout, the silliness of Hollywood’s obsession with “psychos”) cannot quite excuse those faults. But Farrell is still pretty good, at least until the finale when the wheels come irrevocably off, and his portrayal of the alcoholic, opportunistic screenwriter proxy is definitely worth checking out, especially in the film’s genuinely funny first half.