Intermission: A Critical Essay "Everyone
wants something ... but when you're busy making plans...life is what happens in
between". This is how the trailer introduces the
film and, in fact, it is
the best summary that we could ever find of the film. Intermission is a collection
of interconnected stories in which every
character is looking for something and
in the lack of that need, they live a huge number of unexpected situations.
John,
the character in which I am going to focus, is portrayed from the very
beginning as a complete loser. He breaks up with his girlfriend, Deirdre, just
to test her love for him. The problem shows up when she
gets a new
boyfriend who is older than John. Moreover, John is fed up with his job. He
works in a supermarket and his strict and bossy manager makes him leave the job. This is
when his life becomes miserable. This sensation is going to be felt by
John all over the film. He
misses Deirdre and understands that he has done something
bad when he left her.
Meanwhile, Deirdre has reconstructed her life, at least apparently. She
is not happy with her new boyfriend since he does not want to go out. Here we
can observe the differences they have. The main difference is the age.
It is now that John is offered by Lehiff to rob
Deirdre's boyfriend. They plan the robbery helped by one of the local area bus
driver. They will retain Deirdre at home while his boyfriend takes the
money from bank. However, John
just looks for revenge and to get Deirdre's love back. He is not
interested in money. We see it when they get Deirdre's home. He is worried about not hurting her and this is
what betrays him and makes Deirdre
know John is one of the kidnappers.
The
plan turns bad when Deirdre's boyfriend meets his former wife and she starts to
hit him. The robbery does not go out well and John gets hurt: he is shot by
Lehiff.
At the hospital, we see Deirdre talking to John.
Here we can observe that they are near reconciliation. She speaks to him quite softly explaining him
that he did a bad thing. He knows but he just wanted to have Deirdre
back with him. The final scene is at the pub. John talks to her and explains
that he made a list of things he wants in life. He wants to marry her, live with her and get
old with her. When she says she feels the same, we know we are before the happy
ending of the film.
To
sum up, we see that every character in the film chooses the worst way to get
what they wanted. The way is usually violence and greed. In fact, these two
features are shared by all characters in the film.
Another
thing that most of them share is the brown sauce that John pours always in his
coffee. This could be a great symbol to let us know that you always learn
something of everyone, even in the bad things.
John
portrays an excelent example of the prototype of characters in the film. He
shows as a greedy person. He
hurts the person he loves to get what he wants. He even gets hurt
himself.
The
moral advice arrives at the hospital when Deirdre is talkin to John. She
explains to him that he must change since he cannot go on always takin' the
long way to get what he wants.
More summaries about the Intermission