Purportedly based upon a true story, this film depicts the circumstances surrounding the recruitment of a naive young American graduate student by the IRA who want to use her to infiltrate and blow up the headquarters of a Loyalist paramilitary group in Belfast.It turns out however that the recruiter is something other than what he represents (not giving the plot away here), and while the bombing plan succeeds the rest of the story is all about the perfidy and cynicism of all the parties to the Irish "troubles". What I liked about this obviously low-budget melodrama was that it tried to show the dark side of bright and shining 'causes'. What it failed to do however was to rise above cliche in its depiction of the characters involved. I found the portrayal of the IRA as sadistic brutes to be a bit over the top and it failed to address at all the dark side of Loyalism, which, since the 1990's, makes the IRA seem almost moderate. In short the film fails miserably to tell the real story of what is happening in Belfast and instead gives us a stock Perils of Pauline melodrama with the main hero being, yep you guessed it, a Belfast Prod with a Heart of Gold. Political movies work best when they take a stand. Trashing all parties in a conflict in the name of peace is not only limp-wristed, but also a bit dishonest and we never get to hear from the poor woman again because she was taken into the warm embrace of the Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms...I would really like to know how she feels about her experience now.
Review of Patriots
