Quick recap: A man befriends a soldier, Jody, who he is holding hostage. After Jody dies, Fergus starts up a relationship with the dead man’s girlfriend. Yes, this is the movie with the surprise penis.

The only other movie I remember seeing with Forest Whitaker is Last King of Scotland. This was definitely a departure.

Fun (?) fact: In his review of the film, Richard Corliss gave away the twist by spelling out ‘she is a he’, using the first letter of each paragraph.

WHY ARE THEY WALKING BACKWARDS IN THIS GIF?

My thoughts: Holy trainwreck, Batman! This was a mess of a movie, and I don’t mean it in the ‘hot mess’ way. This was just straight up messy. I knew about the ‘twist’ before watching so I was expecting some controversy. What I didn’t know was just how many issues this film tried to deal with. Here is a (very) incomplete list:

• racism
• the Irish Liberation Army
• being transgender vs crossdressing
• homosexuality
• grief over the loss of a loved one
• surviving a bad hairstyle

I don’t have a problem with an issue oriented film, but it just felt like it was being pulled in too many directions. The reveal of Dil being a man was actually the least complicated part of the whole movie. I still don’t really get what was going on between her and Fergus because he literally threw up when he saw her undressed but then continued to see her. I guess it’s sweet that he cared for her? But he also still cringed when he had to kiss her, so I don’t know.

It was very obvious to me that Dil was a man and although it was supposed to be tragic, I found myself laughing  when Fergus went back to the bar they met at and realized everyone was in drag.

The best part of the movie was, of course, Jim Broadbent. He had a small role as bartender but he was wonderful. I loved that he took care of Dil and wanted to protect her. I also loved the scene where he was singing along to one of the songs because it reminded me of Moulin Rouge. Then again, almost everything reminds me of Moulin Rouge so maybe it wasn’t so special, after all.

Final review: 2/5. Just a mess all over.

Up next: The Awful Truth