Five Minutes of Heaven
IFC Films | Release Date: August 21, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
VarietyDennis Harvey
Powerhouse performances by Liam Neeson and James Nesbit make this an intense, ultimately moving tale. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid Fear
When violence eventually rears its ugly head again, the effect is as anticlimactic as the movie’s title is misleading. Brief bliss is a red herring; there’s only a lifetime of pain left in such acts’ wakes. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubSam Adams
Hirschbiegel fails to discipline his English-speaking cast, allowing Nesbitt so much rein with his caffeinated performance that sympathies shift to Neeson’s comparatively sanguine murderer. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
The title of the overlong Fifty Dead Men Walking refers to lives saved by Sturgess' character, who is still in hiding years later. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
On balance, it's a good movie but not a great one. Probably the only reason it's getting North American distribution is because of the involvement of Liam Neeson. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
An imperfect but intensely human movie that ponders the aftershock of violence, could have been an exercise in overacted sappiness. Instead, it's as hard and uncompromising as remorse. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
A director whose breakthrough was the story of a madman's last stand has exceeded that feat with the story of an angry man's next step. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Captures the awful intimacy and the grimy, second-rate quality of the Northern Ireland conflict in resonant fashion. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGary Goldstein
Ultimately, Five Minutes of Heaven is stronger as a whole than its individual parts. It's a well-performed piece that perhaps required a more calibrated hand than Hirschbiegel's proves here. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A forceful Neeson and an even more intense Nesbitt (Bloody Sunday) both show their stuff and obscure the unrelieved pain endured by the men they portray. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Five Minutes of Heaven’reduces Northern Ireland’s troubles to a gimmick, but it’s an interesting gimmick, and the two men hoisted on its petard work at vivid cross-purposes. If nothing else, the film’s worth seeing as a demonstration of opposing acting techniques. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Based on a true story -- that never happened. That might explain why the film circles and circles its subject but never strikes dramatic pay dirt. Read full review
50
Village VoiceVadim Rizov
The production design is spot-on, but Hirschbiegel tries way too hard to create tension, making every occurrence--a record needle dropping, a car door slamming--an unsubtle potential bomb, fraying your nerves like a cheap horror movie. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
A feature-length talkathon built on a sketchy premise, some unpersuasive psychology, a pinch of politics and strong star turns from Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt, the appeal of all those words runs out long before the director Oliver Hirschbiegel turns off the spigot. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Early scenes set up the tragedy, but the majority of Oliver Hirschbiegel's movie is set in a TV studio where the two eventually face each other, and the tension, unfortunately, quickly becomes stagey. Read full review
More From This Movie

62 Critic Reviews

7.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL