Plot
Lehiff (Colin Farrell) is a petty criminal always involved in trouble. Lehiff's nemesis, Garda Detective Jerry Lynch (Colm Meaney) presents himself as a saviour who fights the "scumbags" on Dublin's streets, and enlists the help of Ben Campion (Tomas O'Suilleabhain), an ambitious film-maker and the bane of his "go-softer" boss, who considers Lynch too nasty a subject to be shown on a mainstream “docusoap” series on Irish terrestrial TV.
While shooting a scene about a traffic accident, Ben is told to focus his attention on Sally (Shirley Henderson), Deirdre's sister, who helped the passengers after the double-decker bus they were on crashed on its side. Sally, who is deeply insecure about her looks, grows bitter when Deirdre flaunts her new boyfriend, Sam (Michael McElhatton), a middle-aged bank manager who has left his wife of 14 years, Noeleen (Deirdre O'Kane), leaving her to question her own self-worth as a woman and wife.
John, Deirdre's ex-boyfriend, is utterly lost without her and is determined to do anything to win her back. Thus, he gets involved in an absurd plan along with Mick (Brían F. O'Byrne), the driver of the bus that crashed, and Lehiff. They kidnap Sam and force him to go to his bank to get some money so that they can demand a ransom. Things go awry when Sam, who has the money, is assaulted by an enraged Noeleen on the street and a couple of police officers appear. Mick and John flee the scene without their money.
Mick becomes obsessed with taking revenge on Philip (Taylor Molloy), the boy who had lobbed the stone into the windshield and made him swerve and crash the bus, which resulted in Mick getting fired. Things do not go quite his way, and he ends up learning a bitter lesson. As for Lehiff, Lynch corners him in an open field, and the scene is set for a confrontation that ends in an unexpected way.
As the credits roll, Noeleen and Sam are back together in their house watching television. She is sitting purposely on the remote control and bullying him into changing the channels by hand.
Read more about this topic: Intermission (film)
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