Some Mother's Son

Written and directed by Terry George, who scripted IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, this weepy piece of agitprop is undeniably powerful, despite its one-sided point of view and nationalist ardor. Its success is largely the result of a predictably smart and eloquent lead performance from Helen Mirren, playing the mother of an Irish hunger striker following Bobby Sands on his fatal 1981 protest. It's a fabulous, sad story, but George, like his countrymen Jim Sheridan and Neil Jordan, reduce it to unambiguous pieties and hand-wringing. If the Troubles were this clear-cut, they'd have been worked out a century ago. You know the drill: The British are all raving demons; the ...