Intermission (film)

The film opens with a cashier being charmed by Lehiff (Colin Farrell) who, after flirting with the girl, punches her in the face and steals from the till. It quickly moves to John (Cillian Murphy) and Deirdre (Kelly Macdonald) who are a recently separated young couple. The film will revolve around their extended friends.

It is quickly revealed that Lehiff is a petty criminal always involved in trouble. Lehiff's nemesis, Garda Detective Jerry Lynch (Colm Meaney), presents himself as a saviour whose main mission is to fight the "scumbags" on Dublin's streets. He enlists the help of Ben Campion (Tomás Ó Súilleabháin), an ambitious film-maker and the bane of his "go-softer" boss, who considers Lynch too nasty a subject to be shown on a mainstream “docusoap” series on Irish television.

Next up is Mick (Brían F. O'Byrne), a Dublin bus driver. While on his route, Sally (Shirley Henderson) boards and is shown to be deeply insecure about her looks. She asks Mick about some hair on her lip and he mocks her playfully. As the bus journey continues, a young boy called Philip is shown throwing a rock at his bus resulting in a bad crash that Ben winds up shooting the aftermath of. Ben is told to focus his attention on Sally, Deirdre's sister, who helped the passengers after the double-decker bus crashed. She grows bitter when Deirdre flaunts her new boyfriend, Sam (Michael McElhatton), a middle-aged bank manager who has left his wife of fourteen years, Noeleen, leaving her to question her own self-worth as a woman and wife.

John is utterly lost without Deirdre and is determined to win her back. Mick, having become suspended from his job and low on funds, comes up with a scheme involving Lehiff and John. They kidnap Sam and hold Deirdre captive. They force Sam to go to his bank to get money for a ransom. Just as the plan seems to be working out everything goes wrong, as Sam is assaulted by his enraged wife Noeleen on the street and Gardaí are forced to intervene. Mick and John flee without their money.

Mick later loses his job after he is wrongfully blamed for the crash and becomes obsessed with taking revenge on the boy who caused it. After chasing Philip in his car, he loses control and is left balancing over the canal. Philip sits on the bonnet and jumps off, letting the car drop into the canal.

Detective Lynch chases and corners Lehiff in an open field, and decides to take him on, while Ben films everything. Unfortunately Lynch miscalculates and Lehiff gets the upper hand and threatens to kill him. Ben snatches at the gun and shoots Lehiff and Lynch covers it all up.

As the credits roll, Noeleen and Sam are shown reunited in their house watching television. She is sitting purposely on the remote control and bullying him into changing the channels by hand.

• Colin Farrell as Lehiff, a petty criminal with a penchant for getting into trouble with the law
• Kelly Macdonald as Deirdre
• Cillian Murphy as John, Deirdre's former boyfriend
• Colm Meaney as Detective Jerry Lynch
• Shirley Henderson as Sally
• David Wilmot as Oscar
• Deirdre O'Kane as Noeleen
• Michael McElhatton as Sam, a middle-aged bank manager
• Tomás Ó Súilleabháin as Ben Campion, an ambitious film-maker
• Brían F. O'Byrne as Mick, the bus driver
• Ger Ryan as Maura, the mother
• Jane Brennan as Mrs. Rooney

• Intermission at IMDb
• Intermission at Rotten Tomatoes
• Intermission at Box Office Mojo