Let's Hope Jimmy's Hall isn't Loach's Last Waltz

It's fitting that the general feeling that one comes away with after watching Ken Loach's maybe/maybe not final film is one of hope. The veteran filmmaker and Bath resident has spent decades defining the social realism genre with hard-hitting cinema verite fare like Kes and My Name is Joe. Films so stark and uncompromising they seem to have been filmed through a filter the colour of gravel. But social realism should never be an endless onslaught of misery for it is the sweet that makes the bitter so bitter and despite a backdrop of poverty, religious persecution and whippings (lest it be outdone by 12 Years a Slave) it may be Loach's sweetest film yet. 

The story is of troublemaker and Communist activist Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward) who returns to his native Ireland in 1930 after a decade exiled in New York. While Jimmy insists he simply wants to live a quiet life on the family farm with his frail mother the glint of mischief remains in his eyes. That mischief takes the form of the tiny village's community hall which Jimmy had established years earlier but the church parish shut down over fears of Marxist indoctrination. The hall represents joy and hope for a community with no jobs, no means of education and no hope for the future. But the fears of indecency, anarchy and Communism are stirred by the church again, represented by the pious and rigid Father Sheridan (Jim Norton).

The clash of buttoned down religious figures and free-thinking hedonists may be cliched as Hell, Sheridan is after all played by Bishop Brennan, but the effect the church has on the community is effective nonetheless. Loach manages to taint the simple image of people leaving their pews with a sinister tone and the devastation felt by the characters is brought to the fore by fearful performances. The whipping exchanges the bloody body horror of 12 Years with the stilted, detached brutality of a documentarian. 

If there's one weak link it's regrettably Ward himself who, despite hardly leaving the screen, is never afforded the opportunity to communicate any kind of internal conflict. Here Gralton is an unambiguous folk hero, a figure of hope and courage with Wards performance easily able to light a fire in people's hearts. Instead the figure of ambiguity is found in Father Seamus (Andrew Scott) the young priest serving as the progressive counterpoint to Sheridan. It's a character that Scott presents as reserved and compliant, only passively voicing the rational arguments against Sheridan's zeal. It's only when the situation intensifies that he breaks, passionately and hopelessly observing how far Sheridan and his followers have fallen.

Like with most of Loach's work there appears to be little in the way of cinematic structure, for when does life progress so neatly. But there is an escalating sense of intensity that gradually builds with a balance struck between the harsh consequences and Graltons drive to continue the fight. While indeed true to life this does rob the final act of some of the emotional impact. Everything is taken from Gralton yet the film is rarely able to communicate the sadness in it all, instead swiftly moving to its conclusion. Even Father Sheridan's attempt at redemption, showing respect for Graltons courage and conviction, comes across as hollow.

Jimmy's Hall is a celebration of people's ability to find hope in the direst of circumstances and in that respect it succeeds. It may lack the nuance of a weightier character piece but it is an energetic and engrossing tale. The biggest hope that it inspires is that it is not the last we will see from Loach.