Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Jim Sheridan, David Merriman
Starring: Vicky Krieps, Jim Sheridan, John Connors, Colm Meany,
Aidan Gillen
The 1996 unsolved-or-was-it murder of French TV producer Sophie
Toscan Du Plantier in a sleepy village in West Cork has fascinated true
crime buffs for the last three decades. The killing has been the subject
of numerous documentaries and podcasts, with even Oscar-nominated
director Jim Sheridan helming a five-part true crime
series, Murder at the Cottage: The Search for Justice for Sophie, which aired on UK TV in June of 2021. That same month saw the case
brought to a global audience with the Netflix series Sophie: A Murder in West Cork. Now, working in tandem with co-writer/director David Merriman, Sheridan once again delves into the case with Re-Creation.
The prime suspect in the murder has always been Ian Bailey, an English
journalist who lived in the area of the victim and had a sordid history
of domestic abuse. However, a failure to produce substantial evidence,
and some possible corruption on the part of Ireland's police
force, An Garda Síochána, meant Bailey never stood trial in
Ireland. Bailey was however found guilty in 2019 by a French court that
tried him in absentia, but Ireland refused extradition. Bailey passed
away in 2024.
Sheridan and Merriman's film imagines how a jury might have deliberated
had an Irish trial gone ahead, and it's essentially a reworking
of 12 Angry Men. Like Sidney Lumet's film it opens with the jury counting their votes,
finding 11 votes of Guilty and a lone Not Guilty vote. The latter is
cast by Re-Creation's Henry Fonda stand-in, Juror 8 (Vicky Krieps), much to the
annoyance of the rest of the jury. If you've seen 12 Angry Men you'll know exactly how this will play out, that one by one the
jury members will be persuaded to change their vote as they overcome
various prejudices and exorcise personal demons.
Aside from a brief diversion to West Cork, the film keeps its drama
confined to the jury chamber. As this is Ireland, it can't borrow the
sweatiness of Lumet's film, but it certainly apes the frayed tempers and
bigotry. The Lee J. Cobb role of the prejudiced blowhard who will be
hardest to convince goes to John Connors as Juror 3,
whose refusal to listen to any counter-arguments is mired in
anti-English bigotry and a past experience that continues to haunt
him.
In a curious way, Re-Creation is a reversal of Sheridan's In the Name of the Father, positing that perhaps an Englishman was stitched-up by the Irish
police. Sheridan acknowledges that a degree of anti-English sentiment
has always played a part in the Irish public's belief in Bailey's guilt,
and it's the non-Irish jury members who are the first to change their
votes. It then splits along gender lines, as the women turn to Not
Guilty, which is a little hard to swallow in a femicide case.
Sheridan casts himself as the jury head, a devil's advocate who ensures
everyone gets to plead their case. The filmmaker is excellent in the
role, exhibiting the natural ease of a veteran performer, but we often
feel like we're listening to Jim Sheridan presenting his personal
opinion rather than that of his fictional character. Re-Creation suffers from some clunky dialogue as it tries to inform the
audience of details of the case, but it's brought to life by the key
performances of Sheridan, Connors and Krieps, though the latter ends up
playing a much smaller role than you might expect of an actress of her
stature. Oddly miscast is Colm Meaney as Ian Bailey.
Meaney never speaks, but we hear Bailey's real voice in audio
recordings, and it's simply impossible to put Bailey's very English
voice to Meaney's very Irish face.
Re-Creation is a flawed but fascinating experiment, though as is the case
with all true crime media there's an argument that its very existence is
distasteful. Since 1996 practically everyone in Ireland has an opinion
on this case, and since its recent prominence in podcasts and
documentaries, so too do numerous true crime buffs around the world. But
ultimately Re-Creation reminds us that no matter how many details and evidence we're
exposed to in such cases, none of us really know anything, not even
those 12 who spend weeks of their lives listening to evidence.
Re-Creation is in Irish
cinemas from October 3rd.
