i must have seen a different film!!

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Director Pete Travis (Vantage Point) got a well-deserved BAFTA in this gut wrenching film written by Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Ultimatum) and Guy Hibbert.The story of a 1998 bombing that claimed 29 lives and injured over 200 shows the struggle against political stonewalling and cover-up by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and government authorities.Imagine a father's surprise when he finds out that the authorities knew about the blast beforehand and did nothing. You can imagine the families of the victims of the September 11th bombings in this country and the suspicion of a cover-up. There was a real cover-up here.Gerard McSorley (Veronica Guerin, The Constant Gardener) led a stellar cast that included Michele Forbes as his wife.NOTE: Justice was not served with criminal prosecutions, but there was a successful civil suit after the OJ Simpson civil suit.

I am to young to remember the Omagh bombing but the film made you feel you were really their at the bombing and after.The movie is based on a real event when 29 innocent people died by a car bomb planted by the real I.R.A (Irish Republican Army) The film focuses on Michael Gallagher and his family who lost there 19 year old son Aiden in the bombing. This results in the rest of the family trying to fit in without Aiden but fail. They then join a support group hoping to bring the I.R.A to justice.Paul Greengrass(United 93,The Bourne Ultimatum) gives a fantastic script and Pete Travis does fantastic work in the direction and turns it into a movie that has you reaching for your handkerchiefs.It is very rare to see a cheap film with a small and unknown cast and even an unknown director and turn it into a fascinating and wonderful drama that couldn't be topped no matter how much Hollywood stars or money would be put in it was a rare but special treat with almost no mistakes. Omagh will be very hard to find in a DVD shop but once you see it all that work will be worth it.

First I have never been a fan of the shaking camera effect. OK maybe it's useful for a few brief scenes to show chaos. Adding the documentary tone to this movie makes it come off as transparently contrived. It just gives the movie an unreal cheap low budget flavor.I also did not know when I rented it that it was made for TV movie. The film is not horrible by any means. There are some very good segments in it dealing with grief. However considering the excellent subject matter I think a much better film could have been made. Of course it would have required a bigger budget.It also could have explored the Northern Ireland conflict or at least shown what might have motivated the bombing. Rather than just use it as a tool to portray the subjects as apparently purely evil.

OMAGH tells the story of a terrorist bombing in a northern Ireland hamlet that killed 29 people in the mid 90s. It follows a father and several others who try over the next several years to get justice for their murdered kin. The movie ends on an ambivalent note, as it was based on a true story. No one is ever held responsible for the bombing, although several terrorists that may have been involved are eventually incarcerated for other misdeeds. The movie is filmed and told in documentary fashion, using a jittery, swooping hand-held camera, and it works most of the time. The film is actually very subdued, very low key, and in the end this lack of heightened histrionics tends to work against it. We are happy when it is finally over, especially as we are led to understand halfway through that the bombers will never be caught or prosecuted. Brenda Fricker has a cameo as an ombudsman. Otherwise, the rather large cast, presumably including some real villagers, is unknown to American audiences.