Reviews

To me, this is a movie about a man paying for the first half of his life with the second. In a sense, I think it's a story about karma. Good ol' Barry straight up is not a very good guy for the first half; he often acts selfishly, he lies to get what he wants, and while he isn't cruel or evil by any means, he's certainly more of a taker than a giver in the grand scheme of things. One day, he gives his wife a great big apology, and he's a self changed man after that moment. He's snuck and stolen his way to a position of power in the world, and when he cleans up his act, the world doesn't forgive him so easily, and that's the tragedy of it. Middle aged family man Barry doesn't deserve what happens to him, but young Barry did, and someone's gotta pay, whether he likes it or not. The final, and in my opinion most important instance of this is during his duel with his rotten step son at the end of the movie. Barry wasn't born a socialite, and in his little community at home in Ireland, a man had to be a little rougher, and fight for what he wanted, which he does in the contrasting duel at the start. His toughness has done him few favors trying to integrate into high class society, but in his duel with this punk kid, he decides he's had enough. He could win this fight, but it's time for him to be the bigger man, and he fires into the ground, to offer peace. It's too late for Barry, sadly. At this point in his life, he doesn't have a chance to hold onto his ill gotten gains, no matter how pure of heart he may be now. His step son shoots him in the leg, which is then amputated, and Barry returns to his life of cheating at gambling, only without the success of his youth. He's lost all he'd gained, because it was never truly meant to be his, and whether or not we can call this justice, or fairness, it's the harsh truth that in the end it all returns to nothing.

It looks incredible, but there's nothing about that I could say that 10 others haven't said better.