This is a fairly long film which feels even longer as the pace crawls along
introducing the players and their parts, their family histories and the
alleged terrorists are slowly revealed.
Slowly, painfully slowly at times, evidence is revealed which points towards the
fact that the neighbours may not be exactly who they first seem to be.
Whilst there were excellent moments as the evidence was unearthed it was
obvious to the audience that something was amiss well before the film came to
its own conclusion; indeed, it was hard not to cry out, "Look, they're
terrorists; so do something".
This perhaps enforced the films dual message that although there are terrorists
out there, there are those who have the finger of suspicion pointed at them for
no good reason. As demonstrated in real life by
Waco, misplaced accusations can lead to
extremely unfortunate results.
This film made clear the consequences of errors of judgement and hits us hard
when we eventually realise that just because someone has something to hide it
does not make them terrorists, criminals or anything other than normal people
trying to carry on their lives whilst forgetting their unfortunate past's.
It also shows how easily we can let our suspicions and prejudices get out of
hand; sometimes justifiably and sometimes not.
Although the message was delivered well, and done with calculating precision,
even in retrospect, it was too slow getting there.
Which is a great shame because, when the film finally picks up pace, it is
handled excellently and delivers a superb climax to the saga.
If it had been more dynamic in its delivery, better paced during the first two
thirds and even slightly shorter; it would have been an even better film than
it is.
That said; suffering its slowness is well worth it. If you are sick to
death of closing scenes with the hero snogging the leading lady then walking
off into the sunset to hopefully collect an Oscar, accompanied by a mass
audience sigh of, "Ah"; there are alternative endings.
