I have to confess that I've never been a fan of Loach . If a film director says the most important aspect to film making is hearing if the dialogue is authentic then perhaps the director should be working in radio ? ROUTE IRISH is a film that opened to some bad reviews even from people forgiving to Loach and his politics . Make no mistake the politics here sink the movie which is probably the worst film in the director's long resume

One can't help thinking if the problem is the premise or the plotting . It's certainly a combination of both and both faults can be squared at the feet of screenwriter Paul Laverty who wants his cake and eat it by giving us gritty kitchen sink politics in a BOURNE type of plot . You can perhaps see a Hollywood type of blockbuster where George Clooney finds his best friend , a security contractor , has been killed in Iraq in dubious circumstances and Georgious George wants to get to the bottom of it . Unfortunately the only person the screenplay seems written for is not George Clooney but George Galloway

Mark Womack is cast as anti-hero Fergus Molloy and you got to feel slightly sorry that Womack has not been given a convincing character to perform . Molloy is a veteran of the Iraq war , then he reveals he was in SAS operations but for some ridiculous reason he then spouts slogans that would feel at home at a Trotskyite useful idiot convention

" Why would the police care about a taxi driver . There's one million dead in Iraq " Well only if you listen to the discredited figures of John Hopkins University . Most observers including those like Iraq Body Count and Wikileaks which were opposed to the war give a figure closer to 105,000

" I carried out operations with the Americans in Bahgdad . I'm telling you if the Iraqis weren't for Al Qaeda at the time they now will be " Not actually correct . Even today you watch the news and wedding parties in Sunni heartlands have seen massacres by terrorists . The victims are often relatives of Sunni warlords who changed sides during the Iraq insurgency . It must be very painful for useful idiots to learn that if the one thing Iraqis hate more than American neo-imperialism then it's the murderous barbarity by Al Qaeda . AQ failed to take root in the country down to the fact that not even the most misguided Baa'thist nationalist can tolerate them as an ally

So in effect the protagonist lacks any credibility down to a lack of back story or consistency . He's impossible to believe in as anything more than a platform for Laverty's political views . And it was this spouting of incredibly unconvincing dialogue that caused critics to suggest Loach and Laverty to part ways . I for one will be happy to see Laverty find his true calling in life which is handing out political pamphlets to equally useful idiots . I also wonder since he's so opposed to market forces if Laverty got paid for his screenplays ? I mean he's effectively saying " Rich people bad . Poor people good " so isn't there something hypocritical afoot ?

And perhaps the most hypocritical thing is that Loach and Laverty are profiting from the invasion of Iraq by making a film about it ? They were probably thinking they were ironic in making the water board torture scene but the irony of the whole film seems lost on them

Dull. Starts slowly and confusingly and doesn't get better.

I kept waiting for it to find a higher gear, and things to fall into place, but it and they never did. Just seemed to drag on and on.

If you want a movie that will hold your attention and leave you feeling like you've watched a great movie, this is it. I am not a connoisseur of Ken Loach, or a movie snob, I just enjoy a movie that holds my attention.

Unlike the other reviewers, I thought the characters were well-drawn and convincing. The effects used on the film itself such as graininess, washed out lomo effect, and darkness in the right places, makes this a pleasure to watch.

The over-use of the f-bomb is a real factor. Men do talk exactly like that, but for a film less would have been more.

The politics of the mercenary world are shown brilliantly and without any sense of preachiness or one-sidedness.

Just an excellent movie.