Review: Ken Loach's 'Jimmy's Hall' Is Paint-By-Numbers Political Filmmaking

This is a reprint of our review from the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

It was announced here in Cannes that Ken Loach, who had long mooted this year’s Competition entry “Jimmy’s Hall” as his last film, had at least partially relented (possibly in the face of the general rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth that greeted the suggestion here: Cannes loves Ken), and is thinking of embarking on another project. Good thing too, because “Jimmy’s Hall” would be no great cap to a long, singular filmmaking career--it’s a twee and tweedy period “Footloose,” into which Loach’s trademark left wing sympathies are not so much woven as photocopied and stapled onto alternate pages of the script. The Robbie Ryan cinematography ensures everything looks tremendous, all emeralds and warm browns and autumnal Irish ochers, but it’s a richness and texture that isn’t matched by anything else in the film. Well, okay, the costuming is excellent too. 


Based on the true story of communist Jimmy Gralton,...