If you got yourself an indie-film how-to book, the movie you made from it would probably look a lot like Intermission: generally well-acted, relatively entertaining, mildly edgy, with a sort of gritty look that sets it apart from the mainstream. Throw in a supporting performance from a big star who's slumming and make sure your indie film is a foreign indie film, and you've covered all the bases.
If Intermission plays like many, many other indie films of the last decade or so, that's not to say it's without merits, especially if dark, Altman-esque ensemble dramas full of Irish people are your kind of thing. The film follows a dozen or so Dubliners, including grocery store clerk John (Cillian Murphy), his recent ex-girlfriend Deirdre (Kelly Macdonald), his best buddy Oscar (David Wilmot), petty criminal Lehiff (Colin Farrell, the requisite big star), Deirdre's sister Sally (Shirley Henderson), tough-guy cop Jerry (Colm Meaney), and a host of other, less important characters who move in and out of one another's lives. The central conflict is the break-up between John and Deirdre, as the latter takes up with an older banker and the former tries to figure out how to get her back.
The various threads converge, as they tend to do in these sorts of films, at the end, with a heist-gone-wrong plot which feels somewhat out of place. Writer Mark O'Rowe and director John Crowley are both veterans of the Irish theater scene, and they flesh out interesting characters within the rambling, mostly plotless film. Some of the connections feel a bit contrived at times, and the ending ties things together a little too neatly, but for the most part, the film is a pleasure to watch. The acting is uniformly good, with Meaney providing plenty of fun as the overzealous cop who jumps at the chance to star in a documentary about the mean streets of the city. Murphy, best known for 28 Days Later, and Macdonald, best known for Gosford Park, make a believable couple, even as John and Deirdre are put through some truly odd circumstances.
Crowley makes excellent use of music, and overall puts together a successful little picture. It's got modest aims, and hits the mark most of the time. Not spectacular, but not bad by any means, Intermission is just as its name suggests—a nice little break.