Jimmy's Hall

Back in time and to rural Ireland...to conservative and catholic politics. The director Ken Loach proclaimed Jimmy's Hall as his last film, while in competition at Cannes earlier this year. He adopted the true story of Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward), an Irish communist who was eventually deported without trial in 1933, for having engaged his local community around a public hall in County Leitrim. However, we meet him determined to settle back to life in his home village, after living 10 years in New York City. It is not long before the townsfolk convince him to bring the hall back to life, and soon, it becomes the focus for education, community events and music. But it was around the music that the tyrannical catholic priest, played by Jim Norton, incited fear and intolerance; confusing jazz with moral decay. I was not sure about the current message of this film. It seems more than a conflict between the narrowminded rulers and the downtrodden masses. But I did enjoy two special relationships; Jimmy revisiting his childhood sweetheart Oonagh (Simone Kirby), and the way his mother, played by Eileen Henry, stands up to the authorities in a stoic and morally reasoned manner...