I like several Ken Loach films but this one was not as good. It started off quite well but from the moment the American lawyer is killed, until the end, I felt lost its focus. I don't know if it was based on the killing of Patrick Finuance, the Belfast lawyer, but the movie did feel like it was intended to be similar
too, or echoing this event.
I feel this did not really translate too well. The problem was that it showed intelligence agents murdering the lawyer and a suspected IRA man, when what seemed to happen in Northern Ireland was that security force killings were usually carried out by the SAS and not by intelligence services. Also, Loyalist groups seem to have carried out killings which the state did not want to be immediately linked too, such as the Finuance murder. Therefore, the shooting of the lawyer did not ring true for me. In addition, I did not think that the British intelligence officer character was very credible.
As the story developed I thought the plot became a little far-fetched. I did not like the introduction of all the old allegations about the intelligence services actions against the Labour government of the 1970s. I thought it took away from the collusion issue that I think the movie was trying to get across. In conclusion, I think Hidden Agenda is a decent film but becomes confused and is not really very illuminating when it comes to its major theme of security force collision during the conflict in Northern Ireland.
January 10, 2011
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