The Liberator

When will American and British directors learn that there are decent, authentic Irish actors? The story of Daniel O'Connell needs to be told and so when I saw the film The Liberator, I watched it as soon as I was free. I was disappointed within the first few minutes when I realised that it was close to an all American cast, most of which didn't even attempt an Irish accent and those that did, failed miserably. It would have been much more powerful if they used Irish actors. Or at least used actors with the ability to act with an Irish accent. Perhaps they tried but as they brushed over the pain and misery of the great hunger, no Irish actors wanted to play any part in the movie? Maybe they thought that an American audience wouldn't be able to understand Irish accents? Well then get some actors to do an American English version to dub over the original if needed but just feel this film, this story would be so much better told by Irish people. Very disappointing.

The story should be told, but this is not the vehicle to do so. The writers must still be in high school, as the script is precisely what a mediocre high school drama class would present. It is a tragedy that anyone funded this production.

There is little acting. The actors recite their lines as if reading from a script in front of their history class.

I'll assume the costumes and sets are mostly accurate, so this might be of interest for the substitute teacher in European History to play for her class.

However it's notable as earlier reviewers said, that the cast are all American and no Irish accents are present. A solid 4 / 10.