The easiest way to describe Intermission would be to say that it is a gritty, funny look at the intersecting lives of people in Dublin, Ireland.  That may not be the best way to put it, but it would be ridiculous to try to describe the plot of this movie.  It simply goes on and on and on and on, generating enough material for five films.  That it succeeds as one good one is something of a cinematic miracle.

So much happens in Intermission: the characters discover that “brown sauce” (think A1) tastes good in tea, a cop’s car is stolen while he is on a drug bust, a television producer decides he wants something gritty after filming a rabbit race, and so on.  The screenplay ingeniously weaves the different plot lines together in such a way that is never hard to follow; we always know who is on screen and what is going on.  When the events of a film get this complex, the danger is that the plot can become too convoluted to follow; things cease to make any sense.  That is not the case here.  The film brings to mind Pulp Fiction, among others, in the way so many stories cross, and in the way the film goes from romance to betrayal to kidnapping, each of the characters with their own quirks and their owns verbal styles.

Lehiff (Colin Farrell) is the brawler of the bunch, the delinquent who debates the merits of buying a wok.  John (Cillian Murphy, who we recently saw in 28 Days Later and Cold Mountain) hates his job at the supermarket, and his coworker, Oscar (David Wilmot, King Arthur, The Laws of Attraction) is in constant despair that he cannot find a girlfriend.  He is advised that he should go after older women, who would be grateful for his attention.  John has also recently broken up with his own girlfriend, Deidre (Kelly Macdonald, Trainspotting, Gosford Park, Finding Neverland), who immediately begins dating married bank manager Sam (Michael McElhatton), while Sam’s abandoned wife, Noeleen (Deidre O’Kane) goes to a lonely-hearts dance and meets – wait for it – Oscar.

Also in the mix is Ben (Tomás O'Suilleabháin), the television producer who is at odds with his superiors, and Jerry Lynch (Colm Meaney), the hard-boiled cop who has seen so many Cops style reality shows that he thinks he should star in one himself.  It is through the relationship between Ben and Jerry that the point of the film is so obviously made.  While Ben searches for “more reality,” the heroic story, the “mythic shot” that set him apart from the rest, he misses what is going on around him.  When he strikes out on his own and creates a show with Jerry called “On the Streets,” the results are hilariously trite.  Jerry plays to the camera, overacts, and forsakes everything that made him interesting in the first place.  In the end, Jerry’s grandstanding almost gets the both of them killed.

John Crowley, in his directorial debut, handles the material like an old pro.  He clearly knows his way through this maze better than we do, which is a must for every director.  The actors are solid all around, and all of them fit seamlessly into this large ensemble.  This is particularly true of Farrell and Meaney, no doubt the two most recognizable faces for American audiences.  Farrell is a lot of fun to watch as the rough and tumble Lehiff, and he practically steals every scene he is in.  This film is a stellar work from beginning to end, all the pieces fitting right into place.

Intermission is presented in the original 1.85 theatrical ratio.  The transfer is sharp, perfectly capturing the DV photography.  The colors come through well and the overall picture is crisp.

This DVD is presented in English Dolby 5.1 Surround.  The presentation is solid, with all channels coming through sharply and clearly.

Deleted Scenes: Two scenes that did not make the final cut.  These are interesting in that they add to the backstory of everything going on, but are otherwise not necessary.

Theatrical trailer: The original trailer.

The features on this disc are sparse.  The two deleted scenes add up to only a minute or two, and the trailer feel like something that should just be there.  There is so much going on in this film that an audio commentary would have been nice, or some kind of behind-the-scenes featurette.