In the Name of the Father

In the Name of the Father is currently streaming in Australia on BINGE and Foxtel Now, and it rewards the patience it asks of you. It says what it needs to say in one sitting, no filler. An 8/10 rating says what the writing already makes obvious: this one works. Daniel Day-Lewis leads a cast that never overplays its hand. There is no real reason to keep putting it off — it is right there on BINGE.

Whatever else is competing for your attention this week, In the Name of the Father is worth clearing space for. In the Name of the Father trusts its audience to sit with discomfort instead of resolving it too quickly. A small-time Belfast thief, Gerry Conlon, is wrongly convicted of an IRA bombing in London, along with his father and friends, and spends 15 years in prison fighting to prove his innocence. Daniel Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. It was released in 1993. The performances in In the Name of the Father do a lot of work in the silences between the dialogue. The consistency throughout is what elevates it — not every moment is the best, but none of them are a reason to stop watching.

For anyone looking for storytelling that takes its characters seriously, In the Name of the Father delivers. It rewards viewers regardless of what else is in their watch history. A contained runtime means every scene is doing real work. Daniel Day-Lewis's work here is the kind that gets referenced in career retrospectives. It makes everything else feel thin by comparison.