This film is set in an Irish boy’s reform school in the 90s. Cillian Murphy plays the headteacher, who attempts to manage the unruly students, confront the facility’s shutdown and cope with his own personal issues. Toss in a fake documentary crew to make things more disruptive and add brief useless insights into all the players. This feels more like theatre than cinema: Every scene is played out with extended pauses and intense dramatic intent. Frankly, it gets tedious. The actors are all giving their most passionate performances, but the suffering starts to feel self-indulgent on their part, the writing and direction. Because the script attempts to cover so many characters, none of them gets the depth to create much empathy. Some may find this drama powerful and/or moving, but the tedious pace combined with sometimes random scenes and stagy one-to-one encounters just left me not caring for Steve or anyone else in the film. 
(2 / 5)
