Although there have been many powerful and affecting films made about the strife in Northern Ireland, Nothing Personal is one of the best to come down the pike in years.
After the bombing of a bar by the IRA, Kenny (James Train) and his Protestant paramilitary troops are ordered by their commander (Michael Gambon) to obey a negotiated 24-hour truce. But in a street fight with citizens loyal to the IRA cause, Ginger (Ian Hart), Kenny's hot-blooded best friend, murders a man.
Meanwhile, Liam (John Lynch), a Catholic single father with two young children, is injured in the fray and captured by Kenny's men. Since the two men were childhood friends, Kenny tries desperately to save Liam from Ginger's trigger-happy rage.
Thaddeus O'Sullivan directs this riveting drama with a fiercely focused intensity. The screenplay by Daniel Momin vividly explores the toxins of hate which fuel the everyday tragedies on the streets of Dublin. One wonders whether the cycle of violence in Northern Ireland can ever be broken since the hatred which keeps these men at each other's throats is being passed on to the younger generation.
