★★★★ - THE POST
- Irish jury-room drama asks some tough questions -
Late one night in December 1996 a woman was murdered near her holiday home, near the town of Toormare in County Cork, on the south western coast of Ireland.
Sophie Toscan du Plantier was 39 years old. She lived mostly in her native Paris, but she was a regular visitor to Toormare. She had bought the cottage in 1993 and stayed there often, for days or weeks at a time. The locals in Toormare mostly knew her by her maiden name, as Sophie Bouniol.
Sophie’s murder quickly became a media sensation. She was young and beautiful, and her husband Daniel Toscan du Plantier was an older film producer who had romanced a string of socialites before he met Sophie. Prime Minister - and later President - Jacques Chirac was a personal friend.
The Irish Garda investigated the case for months, and a leading suspect was identified. Iain Bailey was a struggling free-lance journalist who lived nearby. He was a drinker, he had convictions for domestic violence, and it was proposed that he was either having an affair with Sophie, or he was obsessed with her.
But, it was widely believed the Garda botched the investigation. They declined to prosecute Bailey, and he lived out his days in the nearby village of Bantry, until he died of natural causes in 2024. In France however, Bailey was tried in absentia in 2018, and found guilty. The Irish government refused French requests that Bailey be extradited.
The film Re-Creation is based on a confounding what-if? What if a trial of Bailey had gone ahead in Ireland, as many people believe it should have? What would the jury have heard? And, later in the jury room, what verdict might they have reached?
Co-writers and directors David Merriman and Jim Sheridan (In The Name of the Father, My Left Foot) have taken the structure of the classic 12 Angry Men, and applied it to a modern day, European jury room. A disparate group of men and women, known only by their jurors’ numbers, sit and discuss the evidence they have heard. Often they will make a call to the court officers, so that an interview can be replayed for them - and us - to watch.
It’s a fascinating idea for a film. Re-Creation is not quite a documentary, and not quite a fiction. The transcripts and the interviews presented are the real deal. It is only the jurors reactions and discussions that are imagined. And, despite some misgivings and few narrative traps to be negotiated, Merriman and Sheridan, aided by a phenomenal cast, have put together a truly engrossing and very watchable film.
Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), John Connors (Love/Hate) and Sheridan himself are standouts among the jurors. While Irish veterans Aidan Gillen and Colm Meaney turn up in supporting roles. Meaney as a mostly mute Bailey.
Re-Creation is a terrific project and a wonderful use of the medium. It gets across the screen in a lean 89 minutes, and there isn’t wasted syllable or pixel in all that time. If you’re looking for a decent watch that’ll get you thinking and talking, Re-Creation is recommended.
Also, over the credits of the film, there’s a recording of Camille O’Sullivan - who brought the house down at Shane McGowan’s funeral with her rendition of Fairytale of New York - singing Bob Dylan’s Man in the Long Black Coat. It’s fabulously good, and I can’t find it online anywhere. So I guess you’ll have to see Re-Creation if you want to hear it.
- Graeme Tuckett, THE POST
Re-Creation is now playing at Light House Cinema!