Five Minutes of Heaven 2009

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Two marvelous performances from two Irish actors turn Oliver Hirschbiegel's Five Minutes of Heaven into a tour de force. Read more

Sam Adams, AV Club: Inspired by the sectarian murder of a Catholic dockworker in 1975, Five Minutes Of Heaven belongs, along with Nothing Personal and Breakfast On Pluto, to the rare class of movies that try to encompass both sides of the conflict. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: Ultimately, Five Minutes of Heaven is stronger as a whole than its individual parts. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: So many movies set in Northern Ireland are about the Troubles that we might justifiably ask, why another? Five Minutes of Heaven is far from the best of the breed, but it does at least take a new tack. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: It's an original movie idea that feels written for the stage, all the more so since so much of our attention is diverted to admiring how the actors act, in roles with a high degree of technical
 difficulty. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Early scenes set up the tragedy, but the majority of Oliver Hirschbiegel's movie is set in a TV studio where the two eventually face each other, and the tension, unfortunately, quickly becomes stagey. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Could benefit from a little less of the balanced historical context and a little more of the movie madness of Quentin Tarantino. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The movie might have been more tense had it been a little more quiet. Neeson and Nesbitt, however, are so good that narrative hiccups never threaten to lose us... Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A director whose breakthrough was the story of a madman's last stand has exceeded that feat with the story of an angry man's next step. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Powerhouse performances by Liam Neeson and James Nesbit make this an intense, ultimately moving tale. Read more

Vadim Rizov, Village Voice: The three parts never coalesce, even if they each have potential. Read more