Since neither of the previous reviewers quite obviously has not read the book on which it is based, something of a corrective is in order. Troubles, the book by Booker Award-winning author J.G. Farrell, indeed is disjointed at times and veers about from being comic, historic, satiric, quite sad at times, and altogether engaging. The hotel itself is an allegory of the British in Ireland, and Farrell (and the movie) seem to me to do a pretty good job of presenting that Troublesome situation with balance and historical dimension. As for the movie characterizations, they are most remarkably like, to my mind, those in the book, which is an unusual occurrence indeed. Richardson is magnificent, as would be expected, but all the other characters (and I do mean all) hew very closely to their literary models. They, as opposed to the reviewers (and how often is this the case!), took the trouble to read the book with some attention.
6 Reviews
A Quiet Gem
GeorgeFairbrother21 April 2020
I first saw this years ago having picked up the DVD from a discount table, watched it, didn't really warm to it, then never gave it another thought. Having just recently viewed it again, I have a whole new perspective.
It is very well written (for the screen) by Charles Sturridge, an award-winning, accomplished child actor, writer and director, who later wrote and directed another favourite of mine, Longitude, amongst many other credits over a long and very successful career that is far from over.
Ian Charleson in the lead role (Major Archer) gives a subtle and sensitive performance in what appears to have been his final screen role. (He died in 1990, aged just 40). Ian Richardson as the likeably eccentric yet ultimately quite sinister Edward Spencer is another standout, with a very good quality supporting cast, including Emer Gillespie as the unreachable Sarah Devlin, and a young Sean Bean; a very different soldier from the one he would portray in the Sharpe films a few years later. There is is also a great ensemble of rather quirky characters that lend a human and personal perspective of the anxious last days of the privileged British in Ireland.
I have a feeling that this is a series that will improve again with each subsequent viewing.
It is very well written (for the screen) by Charles Sturridge, an award-winning, accomplished child actor, writer and director, who later wrote and directed another favourite of mine, Longitude, amongst many other credits over a long and very successful career that is far from over.
Ian Charleson in the lead role (Major Archer) gives a subtle and sensitive performance in what appears to have been his final screen role. (He died in 1990, aged just 40). Ian Richardson as the likeably eccentric yet ultimately quite sinister Edward Spencer is another standout, with a very good quality supporting cast, including Emer Gillespie as the unreachable Sarah Devlin, and a young Sean Bean; a very different soldier from the one he would portray in the Sharpe films a few years later. There is is also a great ensemble of rather quirky characters that lend a human and personal perspective of the anxious last days of the privileged British in Ireland.
I have a feeling that this is a series that will improve again with each subsequent viewing.
Not worth the trouble
bejasus19 February 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Erratic pacing, this movie doesn't know what it wants to be: satire, farce, or melodrama. No matter which mode it is in during any particular scene, it gets it wrong. For instance, there's a running "joke" about the cats that have multiplied to astronomical proportions, taking over the Majestic Hotel. During a fire, there's a funny shot of the cats tearing out of the hotel. Kinda funny. But then there's a shot of a cat stuck in a chandelier, and obviously about to be killed by the flames. Kinda horrific. But then you start thinking -- how did the cat get in a chandelier in a building with 20 foot ceilings? None of the resultant conflict in emotion (laughter, horror, confusion) seem to serve any role in moving the plot forward, nor does the director seem to want you to be torn between two moods. It's just awkwardly written and directed.
Ian Richardson, however, gives a great performance as always.
Ian Richardson, however, gives a great performance as always.
Lovely film
angelofvic16 January 2010
Set immediately after WWI and focusing gently around the troubles between the English and the Irish in Ireland, this layered saga rewards a viewer genuinely interested in the fate of its protagonist, the Englishman Major Archer (Ian Charleson). Major Archer's own mystifying and repeated "troubles" seem to eventually mirror the political troubles of British-occupied Ireland. And Ian Charleson gives a delicious performance that evokes just such an interest in his fate, no matter how eccentric his surroundings.
With Major Archer as the focus, this film makes wonderful viewing, as we see the British in Ireland through his eyes. And everything that happens to him, and the people around him, can also serve as metaphors of the times.
Major Archer's primary interactions are with a self-absorbed and outdated Englishman, Edward Spencer (played aptly by Ian Richardson) and his eccentric family, and a magnetic and coquettish Irish Catholic named Sarah (Emer Gillespie) whose charms Archer succumbs to. Sympathetic to the Irish cause, Major Archer has antagonists who are exemplified by the young and belligerently British Captain Bolton (Sean Bean). All three protagonists -- Charleson, Richardson, and Gillespie -- play their parts perfectly, and as the sprawling and multi-layered saga finally winds to a close, it feels moving and momentous.
This is Ian Charleson's last screen role, and a delightfully rich one. He plays the mild-mannered yet deep-feeling Major Archer with depth and with pitch-perfect affect. Lovely.
(Note: Americans and other non-Brits would do well to note that the term Sinn Féin is used frequently in the film; it is pronounced "Shin Fayne." This is the radical Irish Republican group, similar to the IRA. The slang term for the group is "Shinners.")
With Major Archer as the focus, this film makes wonderful viewing, as we see the British in Ireland through his eyes. And everything that happens to him, and the people around him, can also serve as metaphors of the times.
Major Archer's primary interactions are with a self-absorbed and outdated Englishman, Edward Spencer (played aptly by Ian Richardson) and his eccentric family, and a magnetic and coquettish Irish Catholic named Sarah (Emer Gillespie) whose charms Archer succumbs to. Sympathetic to the Irish cause, Major Archer has antagonists who are exemplified by the young and belligerently British Captain Bolton (Sean Bean). All three protagonists -- Charleson, Richardson, and Gillespie -- play their parts perfectly, and as the sprawling and multi-layered saga finally winds to a close, it feels moving and momentous.
This is Ian Charleson's last screen role, and a delightfully rich one. He plays the mild-mannered yet deep-feeling Major Archer with depth and with pitch-perfect affect. Lovely.
(Note: Americans and other non-Brits would do well to note that the term Sinn Féin is used frequently in the film; it is pronounced "Shin Fayne." This is the radical Irish Republican group, similar to the IRA. The slang term for the group is "Shinners.")
Not good, but not bad either
pirate_monkey23 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I do agree with the previous reviewer, this movie really can't decide what it wants to be. But since they've already covered that, I'll say that this movie is almost like a soap opera, but packed into a few hours. It has the definite "made for TV" feel to it, but it's not all bad.
This movie can grow on you, but it takes a couple times watching it to really understand what's going on. Once you finally get the basic plot (and believe me, while your watching it it feels like there IS no plot) but it does grow on you, and when it does it is a kind of cute movie.
Another note that I feel compelled to say is that, if you're watching it simply to get your Sean Bean fix, be prepared to watch another movie as well, he makes very few appearances in this, and mostly in the second half.
This movie is very good for watching on a rainy day, when you've got nothing to do, but I don't recommend it when you're trying to get something done, as it is, with almost all made for TV movies, the kind of movie that seems to last forever. And I know this review was very random, and slightly rambling, but these are just a little jumble of my personal thoughts on the movie.
This movie can grow on you, but it takes a couple times watching it to really understand what's going on. Once you finally get the basic plot (and believe me, while your watching it it feels like there IS no plot) but it does grow on you, and when it does it is a kind of cute movie.
Another note that I feel compelled to say is that, if you're watching it simply to get your Sean Bean fix, be prepared to watch another movie as well, he makes very few appearances in this, and mostly in the second half.
This movie is very good for watching on a rainy day, when you've got nothing to do, but I don't recommend it when you're trying to get something done, as it is, with almost all made for TV movies, the kind of movie that seems to last forever. And I know this review was very random, and slightly rambling, but these are just a little jumble of my personal thoughts on the movie.
Historically accurate mini-series
rjun6727 April 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Troubles, is set between 1918 and 1921 and brilliantly captures a period in Irish history which witnessed the rapid and violent rise of the IRA, culminating in the overthrow of the British administration and total destruction of the once privileged, Anglo- Irish Ascendancy class (Protestants with English ancestry). The main characters are an English officer, Major Archer (Ian Charleston), Anglo-Irish landowner,Sir Edward Spencer (Ian Richardson) and local Catholic girl, Sarah (Emer Gillespie). The series begins with Archer paying a visit to his fiancé Angela, who resides in a decaying Irish Hotel with her eccentric family, the Spencer's. The head of the family Sir Edward Spencer, is a good natured, but fiercely loyalist aristocratic. A widower, he has 3 other children, Ripon, a wastrel (and draft dodger), and teenage twins, Charity & Faith. The hotel also includes an assortment of long term residents (senile English ladies), Sir Edward's blind mother, the twin's creepy teacher, Ryan, and a lazy and untrustworthy butler, Murphy.
Archer has not seen Angela since they had met in Brighton during the war, during which, he was wounded. However her reassuring correspondence during the conflict helped to keep him sane.
His stay at the hotel and Angela's distant behaviour confuse the battle weary soldier, but he does meet Angela's friend, Sarah, who he finds a breath of fresh air in the eccentric surroundings. Archer decides to break off the engagement with Angela, only to find out she has died the next morning. After the funeral Archer decides to leave, but Sir Edward and the twins insist he returns, this he agrees to, mainly because of his interest in Sarah. By the time of Archers second visit, the political situation in Ireland has deteriorated so much, that British Auxiliaries (an army of ex- officers recruited to fight the IRA) have been billeted at the hotel. This act further alienates Sir Edward within the community, although he is ignorant to the changing situation. Archer becomes besotted with the alluring but mysterious, Sarah. She explains to Archer, the troubles from an Irish Catholic point of view, but for his part he can't quite understand the madness that is taking a hold both locally and throughout Ireland. Archer meets Sarah again in Dublin and they talk of the Spencer family, with whom she is good friends. Archer returns to the hotel and and helps Sir Edward in his quest to restore the building to its former glory, which includes destroying the cats who have overrun the place. During this time Archer gets to know Major Bolton (Sean Bean), who is commander of the Auxiliaries. He dislikes Bolton's attitude, which is extremely prejudiced against the local population, but as an neutral onlooker to the turmoil in Ireland, Archer understands the point of view of all sides, making him seem the most informed. The Auxiliaries leave the hotel to take up a more defencive position in town, a move which exposes the building to encroaching Republican activities. Sir Edward's harvest is destroyed in an arson attack, and even though Archer persuades him to hand over one of his fields to the peasants, the Republican movement has now become too entrenched in the local mindset. Sir Edward's once paternal presence over his tenants is now increasingly viewed as an unwelcome and alien oppression. His eccentric loyalist activities in the district, once tolerated and quietly ridiculed are now seen as the acts of a collaborator and enemy agent. Anonymous notes start arriving, bearing threats, and the twin's pet rabbit is killed and left as a warning. A grand ball is arranged at the hotel to which, the Auxiliaries are invited. On the night of the ball, the Auxilleries become an immediate nuisance, firing off their guns and abusing the waitresses. A drunk Ryan is told to leave the party by Archer, Sarah dances with Bolton much to the annoyance of Archer, and the twins are almost raped by 2 Auxilleries. Early the following morning, the twins seek sanctuary in Archers bed after hearing a commotion downstairs. Archer investigates thinking it may be the IRA, but finds Sir Edward alone and bruised. He explains he has been fighting with Sarah and Bolton, and this had occurred as a result of jealously. Sir Edward also admits to Archer that Sarah has been his mistress. This is a total shock to Archer who had no idea about the clandestine affair. Events further deteriorate, when Sir Edward and Archer find that Ryan has slaughtered Sir Edward's favourite pigs before running away. The staff are forced to leave the hotel by the IRA, and Sir Edward takes on a siege mentality, which results in a young IRA volunteer being fatally shot in the grounds. Finally all the residents are forced to leave for their own safety. Sir Edward leaves with the twins, while Archer remains to guard the empty hotel with a young Auxiliary, who informs Archer that Sarah had eloped to Dublin with Bolton. The IRA sneak into the hotel and abduct both the Auxiliary and Archer. Archer regains consciousness and finds himself on the beach buried to the neck in sand. The tide almost drowns him, but a party of former residents rescue him at the last minute. Archer leaves Ireland with the others. The hotel is burnt to the ground by Murphy who is consumed by the flames. The final scene is set shortly after the end of the Troubles, with Archer visiting the hotel ruins and reminiscing about Sarah.
The tone of the series is one of claustrophobia, there are disturbing warnings of events taking place outside the hotel, and although they seem distant and irrelevant at first, they are creeping ever closer, and will inevitably consume the Spencers'.
Ian Charleston, gives a near perfect performance, and Emer Gillespie, smolders as the stunningly beautiful Sarah. Also noteworthy are, Sean Bean as Bolton, the prejudiced but realistic officer, and The twins who add a nonchalant humour to what is quite a dark story.
Archer has not seen Angela since they had met in Brighton during the war, during which, he was wounded. However her reassuring correspondence during the conflict helped to keep him sane.
His stay at the hotel and Angela's distant behaviour confuse the battle weary soldier, but he does meet Angela's friend, Sarah, who he finds a breath of fresh air in the eccentric surroundings. Archer decides to break off the engagement with Angela, only to find out she has died the next morning. After the funeral Archer decides to leave, but Sir Edward and the twins insist he returns, this he agrees to, mainly because of his interest in Sarah. By the time of Archers second visit, the political situation in Ireland has deteriorated so much, that British Auxiliaries (an army of ex- officers recruited to fight the IRA) have been billeted at the hotel. This act further alienates Sir Edward within the community, although he is ignorant to the changing situation. Archer becomes besotted with the alluring but mysterious, Sarah. She explains to Archer, the troubles from an Irish Catholic point of view, but for his part he can't quite understand the madness that is taking a hold both locally and throughout Ireland. Archer meets Sarah again in Dublin and they talk of the Spencer family, with whom she is good friends. Archer returns to the hotel and and helps Sir Edward in his quest to restore the building to its former glory, which includes destroying the cats who have overrun the place. During this time Archer gets to know Major Bolton (Sean Bean), who is commander of the Auxiliaries. He dislikes Bolton's attitude, which is extremely prejudiced against the local population, but as an neutral onlooker to the turmoil in Ireland, Archer understands the point of view of all sides, making him seem the most informed. The Auxiliaries leave the hotel to take up a more defencive position in town, a move which exposes the building to encroaching Republican activities. Sir Edward's harvest is destroyed in an arson attack, and even though Archer persuades him to hand over one of his fields to the peasants, the Republican movement has now become too entrenched in the local mindset. Sir Edward's once paternal presence over his tenants is now increasingly viewed as an unwelcome and alien oppression. His eccentric loyalist activities in the district, once tolerated and quietly ridiculed are now seen as the acts of a collaborator and enemy agent. Anonymous notes start arriving, bearing threats, and the twin's pet rabbit is killed and left as a warning. A grand ball is arranged at the hotel to which, the Auxiliaries are invited. On the night of the ball, the Auxilleries become an immediate nuisance, firing off their guns and abusing the waitresses. A drunk Ryan is told to leave the party by Archer, Sarah dances with Bolton much to the annoyance of Archer, and the twins are almost raped by 2 Auxilleries. Early the following morning, the twins seek sanctuary in Archers bed after hearing a commotion downstairs. Archer investigates thinking it may be the IRA, but finds Sir Edward alone and bruised. He explains he has been fighting with Sarah and Bolton, and this had occurred as a result of jealously. Sir Edward also admits to Archer that Sarah has been his mistress. This is a total shock to Archer who had no idea about the clandestine affair. Events further deteriorate, when Sir Edward and Archer find that Ryan has slaughtered Sir Edward's favourite pigs before running away. The staff are forced to leave the hotel by the IRA, and Sir Edward takes on a siege mentality, which results in a young IRA volunteer being fatally shot in the grounds. Finally all the residents are forced to leave for their own safety. Sir Edward leaves with the twins, while Archer remains to guard the empty hotel with a young Auxiliary, who informs Archer that Sarah had eloped to Dublin with Bolton. The IRA sneak into the hotel and abduct both the Auxiliary and Archer. Archer regains consciousness and finds himself on the beach buried to the neck in sand. The tide almost drowns him, but a party of former residents rescue him at the last minute. Archer leaves Ireland with the others. The hotel is burnt to the ground by Murphy who is consumed by the flames. The final scene is set shortly after the end of the Troubles, with Archer visiting the hotel ruins and reminiscing about Sarah.
The tone of the series is one of claustrophobia, there are disturbing warnings of events taking place outside the hotel, and although they seem distant and irrelevant at first, they are creeping ever closer, and will inevitably consume the Spencers'.
Ian Charleston, gives a near perfect performance, and Emer Gillespie, smolders as the stunningly beautiful Sarah. Also noteworthy are, Sean Bean as Bolton, the prejudiced but realistic officer, and The twins who add a nonchalant humour to what is quite a dark story.
See also
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