Jimmy's Hall (2014)

JIMMY'S HALL  (2014)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Ken Loach
    Barry Ward, Simone Kirby, Jim Norton,
    Frances Magee, Aileen Henry, Andrew Scott
A left-wing activist named Jimmy Gralton returns to rural Ireland in 1932, after a ten-year exile in the States. He finds that the community hall he built before he left has gone to ruin, and when his neighbors show an interest in bringing it back, he starts to realize that the "quiet life" he claims to be looking for isn't going to happen. Ken Loach pulls no punches about where his sympathies lie, and it's a safe bet he never will. (Those who don't share at least some sense of solidarity with the collective aspirations of working people should probably avoid his films altogether.) At the same time, he does allow the main villain of the piece, a parish priest, a moment or two of grace. (The landowners and their hired goons, not so much.) And there's one scene, where Jimmy (Barry Ward) and an old flame (Simone Kirby) dance alone at night in the quiet, empty hall, that's as agonizing and intimate as anything you'll see all year. At the end, as Jimmy's being hauled away once more, somebody derisively compares him to Charlie Chaplin. The analogy's not accidental. Chaplin made no secret of his left-wing sentiments, either, and he had a habit of wrapping things up with a speech. That happens here, too, and it works, partly because of the passion in its proletarian message, and partly because Loach, like Chaplin, knows how to make a movie.