The Front Line (2006)

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The DVD, in photos online, tell you nothing. (I watched it late night, BBC2). Firstly, it's written/directed by Limerick born David Gleeson (this is his 2nd feature), is set in Dublin, 93mins long and stars Eriq Ebouaney and James Frain.Ebouaney plays a Congolese immigrant, who has escaped a violent past in his homeland. He's brought his wife over and they have a young girl. He's found work as a security guard at a bank but past events come back to haunt him, when Irish thug Frain and his gang kidnap his family - all he has to do is be the insider for them robbing his bank.It's a polished and modern production, with lots of moody lighting, booming bass thuds and prowling camera, so, so far, so good. As a heist movie, it's OK but that tired formula needs a bit more to get a movie standing out above the rest. Ebouaney helps this, he is both convincing as the new citizen trying to lead a good life and as a human being out of his depth. Frain has less screen presence but is suitably psychotic where he should be.The whole thing moves along pretty quickly - in just over half an hour, they're already inside the bank vaults. It's also great to see a different city and its streets to the usual as a setting.Such crime thrillers aren't my staple film diet so The Front Line will never make any of my top anything lists. However, if such are, you could do a lot worse than this one for a mid-week rental or if you can find it on Sky somewhere. At the price here, it's just not worth it, though.

What a strange film. It begins as a crime thriller and ends up becoming an indictment against war in Africa; in my opinion it is far more successful at the former.An asylum seeker fleeing the fighting in the Congo, gets a job at a security guard in a bank in Eire. He seems a trustworthy sorta fella, however, his wife and child have gone missing in London. When the authorities track them down and grant them all leave to stay, it's seems it will be a happy ending after all. But when an Irish gang kidnap the guy's family in order to get him to cooperate in a little heist they have planned, they don't count on his resilience. As well as a few skeletons he has in the closet that could have them think twice..No-one's behaviour in this film makes any sense! Character's personalities change at the drop of a hat, and seemingly intelligent people make some stupid decisions for no other reason then to add some spice to the plot. Unfortunately this shoddy scriptwriting cripples our interest in the second half of the film, with one 'outrageous' revelation after another resulting in a forced tragic ending.Shame, because the opening scenes are very promising, with Eriq Ebouaney portraying a very sympathetic hero, and Fatou N'Diaye also impressive as his deceptively strong partner. Perhaps the film have been better if the movie had been about their reintegration into a new culture after surviving a traumatic ordeal in a war-torn environment.But no, we get the classic stereotypical gang of chirpy Irish hoodlums, a botched bank raid and then the bloody aftermath, which is where things really come off the rails. There isn't a single event that occurs in the last half an hour that convinces, not one happening that doesn't feel tacked on and absolutely zero elements that aren't stolen from better movies.Just because a film has a humanistic social agenda it doesn't give it the right to be this lacklustre. Someone should have taken the first twenty pages of this script, developed the plot from there are thrown the rest of it on the fire. In my opinion, anyway. What could have been, we'll never know.. 4/10

I've watched some films this year really expecting, and hoping, they would be good. Some met my expectations, some exceeded them and some fell short. I had not heard of this film; but it was the most unexpected joy since Everything Is Illuminated (2005).It succeeds on so many levels. As a thriller is gripped me from the first beat to the last. The characters were well-rounded, believable and performances, especially by Ebouaney, McSorley and N'Diaye were superb. Where had these actors come from? I to search IMDb to convince myself they were acting! I don't know much about Congolese politics, but the back story was completely believable and horrifying in equal measure. "Documentary" shots and montages worked well to reinforce this. And it made me want to learn more and reconsider my thoughts on the "problem" of "their" immigration. Whoever "they" may be.In response to world events, some films in recent years have rightly focused on international politics, the communication between people within and between different nations. And Crash did very well, hence Babel, both of which I enjoyed.But this film achieves more than what both of the above did and on a fraction of the budget! I'd never heard of David Gleeson, but his writing and direction was superb. I will definitely be renting the whole of his back catalogue - and buying this DVD. Please put lots of extras on it David! In summary, I was blown away by the performances of the actors, the detail and complexity of the script and the way in which the subject matter was handled. To come across such a film from left-field was a joy and a rare pleasure. I hope it reflects positively on the CV's of all involved and we see much more of them, as they deserve it.Great job David and all involved.

This isn't a bad attempt at an Irish crime movie. While James Frain hams it up as a baddie, Eric Ebouaney is very watchable as an asylum seeker looking to settle in the city. He is man with a secret just trying to get by and escape his past in the Congo. His wife and son arrive to be with him, but all is not what it seems. Taking a job as a security guard at a bank, he is soon in the thick of it, the victim of a from the headlines tiger kidnapping. When things go awry as they invariably do in this genre piece, there is hell to pay. Getting into bed with a gang of African racketeers – a first in an Irish film – the film subtly examines the plight of a refugee in an alien country, albeit against a heightened backdrop. The performances from Ebouaney and Hakeem Kae Kazim are good, though the Irish characters, particularly the police, are a little stiff. Camera-work is good and the soundtrack contemporary. The twist at the end is okay. Certainly an improvement on the director's first outing Cowboys and Angels. Warning: Brendan Gleeson is not in this film.