Line #34 Film/Intermission


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/intermissionposter_2804.jpg]]
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3	''Intermission'' (styled as ''[=interMission=]'') is a 2003 Irish crime comedy film directed by John Crowley, starring Creator/ColinFarrell, Creator/CillianMurphy, Creator/ColmMeaney, Creator/KellyMacdonald and Creator/ShirleyHenderson.
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5	The film is a raucous story of the interweaving lives and loves of small-town delinquents, shady cops, pretty good girls and very bad boys. With Irish guts and grit, lives collide, preconceptions shatter and romance is tested to the extreme. An ill-timed and poorly executed couple's break-up sets off a chain of events affecting everyone in town. There's the hapless romantic and his sex-starved best friend, the hotshot detective and the crook he's after, a young girl on the rebound with an older married man -- not to mention his deserted wife, an ambitious TV producer, an abandoned fiancée, a preteen trouble-maker -- all of whom are unaware of how their choices are profoundly intertwined. Add a botched robbery, some brown sauce, a woman's moustache, flying rocks and dancing single seniors and you have ''interMission.''
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8	!!Tropes exemplified by this work include;
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10	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Jerry Lynch's policing style.
11	* AttentionWhore: Jerry.
12	* BadBoss: John and Oscar's boss in the supermarket they work in.
13	* BaitAndSwitch: At the beginning, Lehiff seems like he's flirting with the cashier from the coffee shop. [[spoiler: When the last customer leaves, however, he reveals he's a thief, hits her, and robs the place]].
14	* BeardOfSorrow: [[strike:Rare]] possibly ''unique'' female example - Sally, traumatized by an abusive relationship. "She's got a moustache! Whatever she was doing before, waxing, or shaving - she's stopped".
15	* BeautyInversion: Except for Deirdre [=O'Kane=] and Creator/KellyMacdonald everybody's pretty scuzzy, and Creator/ShirleyHenderson sports a moustache.
16	* BlackComedy: This is the sort of film where a woman being exploited by her boyfriend, who then ties her up and defecates on her, is half-PlayedForLaughs.
17	* BrickJoke:
18	** The kid who throws a rock at the bus, causing it to crash, does the same thing to the BadBoss in the ending.
19	** The girl Lehiff decks in the opening scene appears later with a broken nose.
20	* BrokenBird: Sally. She recovers in the end.
21	* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: Sam whips out his penis to show it to Deirdre, just as her mother and sister walk in the door. He puts it back in his trousers just in time, but when Deirdre's mother offers her hand he's unsure if he should shake it or not.
22	* CountryMatters: As Lehiff is being chased by the police, he yells at them, "Come on, you hoopy cunts, youse!"
23	* CowboyCop / OldFashionedCopper / RabidCop: Jerry Lynch.
24	* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Averted when [[spoiler:Oscar walks out on Noeleen after she gets too rough in bed.]] Then played straight after this steels her to [[spoiler: dish out a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on her husband, in the middle of his being an accessory to a bank robbery.]] TheStinger at the end of the film shows them back together, with her openly assaulting in order to keep him in line - and this is played for laughs. Just imagine if the film had been about a man beating up his unfaithful wife and then physically intimidating her once they're back together.
25	** Just to emphasize the double standard, when Sally and Oscar get together, she asks him if he'd ever hit her and he insists that he wouldn't.
26	** Inverted with Sally and her ex-boyfriend- his abuse of her is also played for laughs.
27	* TheDocumentary: In-universe, ''On The Streets With Jerry Lynch''.
28	* EpicFail: [[spoiler:The bank heist.]]
29	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The opening scene, which shows us that Lehiff is charming, [[spoiler:a thief, and not afraid to [[WouldNotHitAGirl Hit A Girl]].]]
30	* GirlsWithMustaches: As noted under BeardOfSorrow, Sally has a mustache as a result of not shaving due to depression, despite being female.
31	* GoodOldFisticuffs: Jerry's favourite style.
32	* TheHeist: [[spoiler: So utterly failed that it barely even registers in the plot.]]
33	* HonorBeforeReason: Jerry puts his gun down before challenging Lehiff to a fistfight. [[RevolversAreJustBetter Lehiff doesn't have this problem]].
34	* HumiliationConga: Sally. Her ex stole all her money, chained her to a bed, ''took a shit on her'' and left her for several days. No wonder she's so traumatised.
35	* HyperlinkStory: In the ''Film/PulpFiction'' mold: numerous characters, several of whom are small-time criminals, whose plotlines overlap in surprising ways.
36	* KingpinInHisGym: Jerry and his punching bag.
37	* KleptomaniacHero: John, who stole ridiculous amounts of stuff from the supermarket in which he works. One time, he stole an entire crate of brown sauce. When he finds he can't get rid of it quickly enough, he starts putting it in his tea.
38	* TheLoinsSleepTonight: At the start of the film, Oscar is so sexually frustrated that he isn't even able to masturbate. He quickly overcomes this when he meets Noeleen though.
39	* MayDecemberRomance:
40	** Near the beginning of the film, Sam leaves his wife Noeleen to pursue a relationship with Deirdre, who is significantly younger than him.
41	** Noeleen responds in kind by entering into a relationship with Oscar, likewise much younger than her.
42	* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Jerry challenges Lehiff to a fistfight at the end, Lehiff accepts before [[CombatPragmatist pulling]] [[RevolversAreJustBetter a revolver]] on him.
43	* OhCrap: Jerry, when Lehiff pulls a gun on him.
44	* ParalyzingFearOfSexuality: Sally. To be expected considering the traumatic experience she had.
45	* RealMenWearPink: Jerry: "I'm a thug. Basically my only humanising quality is my love for Celtic mysticism."
46	* SexualKarma: [[spoiler:Oscar and Sally, [[TwiceShy the two shy ones]], find each other. John gets his girlfriend back when he admits that he cares about her. Sam gets back together with his wife, who's discovered she can use threats of physical violence to keep him in line.]] All together now - awwww.
47	* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Tea with ''brown sauce'' is not the world's commonest drink order. Deirdre realizes that the man holding her hostage must know her ex-boyfriend John because of this.
48	* SophisticatedAsHell: "That makes you, and I feel no compunction in saying this, a ''whore''"
49	* StupidCrooks: Just about every criminal in this film is of the bumbling kind.
50	* TwiceShy: [[spoiler:Sally and Oscar.]]
51	* VerbalTic: Mr. Henderson is fond of ending his sentences with "as they say in the States".
52	* WouldNotHitAGirl: Both this and DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale are [[ZigZaggingTrope zigzagged]] all over the place. First, [[spoiler:in the opening scene, Lehiff is charming a waitress when completely out of the blue he socks her in the jaw and knocks her to the ground.]] Later, John is furious when he treats Deirdre the same way. And on the other hand, Noeleen [[spoiler:hitting Oscar causes him to walk out on her]], but this inspires her to take out her frustration on her husband, which is PlayedForLaughs.
53	* WrongGenreSavvy: Jerry seems to think he's the protagonist in a ''Film/DirtyHarry''-style film. He really isn't.

Context Film / Intermission