Youthful rebellion and long memories collide in "Jimmy's Hall," British socialist filmmaker Ken Loach's touching and forceful look at a forgotten chapter in Irish history.
It's 1932, and Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward) has come home to County Leitrim after a decade in New York, where his good fortune went bust in the Great Depression. His intent is to live a quiet life with his ma (Aileen Henry) in the house where he was born. But plenty of people around town wonder what Jimmy might be up to, because of what happened before he left Ireland.
The story flashes back a decade or so, when a younger, more confident Jimmy defied the county's conservative establishment and the Catholic Church by opening a dance hall. The hall became a gathering place for Gralton, a Communist and labor activist, and his comrades to teach anything from poetry to boxing — but also, most important, to dance and have fun.
Now, Jimmy's old colleagues and some of the younger folks around the county want to know if he is going to reopen the now-dormant hall. Father Sheridan (Jim Norton), the county's senior priest, wants to know the same thing — since he deems Jimmy's Communist leanings a threat to order, and because education, in the good father's view, is the exclusive domain of Holy Mother Church.
Yes, the script, by Loach's frequent collaborator Paul Laverty, bears a passing resemblance to "Footloose" — except that it's a true story, and the emotional and political stakes are devastating.
Dancing as a political act? Yes, in the eyes of the county's power structure, namely the Catholic Church and the wealthy landlords who keep the church's collection plates filled. To them, Jimmy's promotion of intergender dancing is a threat to morality (as defined by Father Sheridan), while his lot's defense of poor tenants challenges the landowners' authoritarian rule.
Loach, who has been telling working-class stories for decades, has no love for either the church or the gentry — and depicts them as collaborators against the good of the people. A brutal example of this comes when Father Sheridan takes down the names of everyone walking down to the dance hall on Saturday night and reads the names aloud from the pulpit Sunday morning. One of the names is Marie (Aisling Franciosi), the spunky teen daughter of the county's leading landowner, Commander O'Keefe (played by Broadway actor Brendan F. O'Byrne), who drags her out of church and horse-whips her at home.
Ward, a Dublin-born actor not familiar to U.S. audiences, cuts a dashing figure as Gralton, charming when he's teaching boxing or Yeats, and passionate when he delivers a speech in support of tenants being tossed out of their homes. (The speech, by the way, wouldn't sound out of place at a Bernie Sanders rally.) Ward also gets to show Gralton's romantic side in a reunion with his lost love, Oonagh (Simone Kirby), that's pretty near heartbreaking.
The most powerful thing about "Jimmy's Hall" is that Loach leaves room for ambiguity. Gralton's not all good, Father Sheridan isn't all bad, and within those shades of gray Loach finds the humanity, joy and sorrow in this slice of Ireland's past.
spmeans@sltrib.com
Twitter: @moviecricket
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'Jimmy's Hall'
An Irishman returns home, to reopen the dance hall that riled up the powers-that-be a decade earlier, in this thoughtful and nuanced drama.
Where • Broadway Centre Cinemas.
When • Opens Friday, Sept. 4.
Rating • PG-13 for language and a scene of violence.
Running time • 109 minutes.
Joss Barratt | Sony Pictures Classics Barry Ward plays Jimmy Gralton, who returns to his Irish home for a little rabble rousing, in the Irish drama "Jimmy's Hall."
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