Since neither of the previous reviewers quite obviously has not read the book on which it is based, something of a corrective is in order. Troubles, the book by Booker Award-winning author J.G. Farrell, indeed is disjointed at times and veers about from being comic, historic, satiric, quite sad at times, and altogether engaging. The hotel itself is an allegory of the British in Ireland, and Farrell (and the movie) seem to me to do a pretty good job of presenting that Troublesome situation with balance and historical dimension. As for the movie characterizations, they are most remarkably like, to my mind, those in the book, which is an unusual occurrence indeed. Richardson is magnificent, as would be expected, but all the other characters (and I do mean all) hew very closely to their literary models. They, as opposed to the reviewers (and how often is this the case!), took the trouble to read the book with some attention.
