British diplomat Henry Stanfield (Roger Allam) is appointed to head up a South African-style Commission for Truth and Reconciliation.
He stumbles – foxy legal aid (Madeleine Mantock) by his side – into a political minefield, populated by such familiar types as Provo-turned-minister Francis Gilroy (Sean McGinley), shadowy MI5 operative (Everest's Tom Goodman-Hill) and the clearly signposted honey-trap hooker Krystal (Klára Issová).
In this version of Northern Ireland, folks speak with random, geographically- unstable accents and they are free to waltz up to those who are giving testimony – unmolested by anything as intrusive as police or security – at the commission and give them a right clatter.
Meanwhile, just down the road, the commissioner’s estranged daughter is pregnant with her first child. Her work colleague just happens to be the sister of one of the region’s “disappeared”, in a case that could potentially take down the ruling hierarchy.
The uncomfortably dramatic grittiness of this plotline is soon squandered in a screenplay that struggles to accommodate too many parties and political allegiances into the shape of a movie. We’re left with shallow characters, sketchy plotting and loud, clanging parallels: the commissioner is detached in life and politics, get it?
Declan Recks previously won over Irish viewers with the tremendous midlands drama Eden, which mined melodrama from everyday domestic tensions.
There is, alas, no such subtlety or finely-honed narrative here. DOP Michael Lavelle manages some striking Belfast-based tableaux, but The Truth Commissioner has about as much business being in a cinema as an episode of Paw Patrol.
