A Chat Over Coffee: Five Minutes of Heaven

So I watched *Five Minutes of Heaven*, you know that flick with Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. And I gotta say, it’s like one of those pastries at a fika that’s both sweet and sour – in each bite, you get a little of everything.

Now, Neeson, our guy from Ballymena, carries a sort of gravitas that just fits so perfectly with his role as Alistair Little. I’m telling ya, this man knows how to hold a silence – it’s like he learned it from the still air of a Swedish forest. And then Nesbitt, as Joe Griffin, hits those emotional peaks like he’s skiing down Åre – thrilling but risky, ya know?

The director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, the same bloke who did *Downfall*, offers this raw, almost documentary-like feel to it. Makes it a bit uneasy, which I think is the point, right? To feel the weight of those old wounds. Feels like sitting on an itchy IKEA couch, where getting comfortable is nearly impossible.

Funny thing, the last time I got into a serious chat about forgiveness, it was with my old buddy Lasse over a game of Kubb – after a few (too many) beers, of course. This film took me right back to that moment. There’s this tension between wanting to let go and the pain of remembering. Anyone who’s patched up after a neighborly spat in Sweden knows how real and messy that gets.

The film’s themes of redemption and reconciliation feel timely and timeless. But, honestly, it left me a bit unsure too – like staring at an ambiguous Bergman ending, wondering what I just felt. Some bits dragged like a winter afternoon in Stockholm, but you come out appreciating the experience. Maybe that’s all that matters, eh?

Check the trailer below