tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

Jim Sturgess has already proven himself to be more than just an aspiring young actor - he has shown an amazing acting range that includes singing and the ability to play period movies with authenticity and aplomb. In tMF's updated 50 Hottest Young actors list, he placed 4th, ahead of Robert Pattinson, Gaspard Ulliel among others. In Fifty Dead Men Walking, he proves that he is the actor to watch! The good news is, the drama-suspense-thriller based on Martin McGartland's shocking real life story will finally be shown in theaters on July 31, 2009! Here's the trailer:

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Synopsis: Based on Martin McGartland's shocking real life story, Martin is a young lad from west Belfast in the late 1980s who is recruited by the British Police to spy on the IRA. He works his way up the ranks as a volunteer for the IRA whilst feeding information to his British handler and saving lives in the process; until one day he is exposed, captured and tortured to within an inch of his life. He escaped dramatically by throwing himself from a tower block window and is still in hiding today.

Early Review

Screen Daily's Allan Hunter did an awesome review of Kari Skogland's dramatic-thriller Fifty Dead Men Walking, starring Jim Sturgess, Ben Kingsley and Kevin Zegers and part of the review goes:

Sturgess once again confirms his ability to carry a film with a performance that is just as commanding but very different from his most notable roles in Across The Universe and 21. Kevin Zegers is virtually unrecognisable and sports an entirely convincing Irish accent as his closest friend and die-hard IRA supporter.

and in another part, a comparison between Skogland and Scorsese:

Martin Scorsese has always shown a fascination with the life of the informer; a trusted insider who eventually betrays the people he has come to know and even respect. It is a primary theme in Goodfellas and The Departed. It is also the means to provide an almost forensic examination of how an organisation works. It is a similar approach that Kari Skogland takes here as Martin’s experiences in the IRA allow us an unflinching view of the torture, rough justice and vengeful violence deployed in the name of a cause.

More Insights into the Movie

Kari Skogland explains how she got involved with the movie:

A couple of years ago, a friend bought me the book and because I was brought up in Canada, of course I was certainly aware of the Troubles but I didn't have real inside knowledge. I was familiar with the territory but what I loved about the book was the voice of a young man growing up inside a conflict. It wasn't a voice that I had heard before and I then was very curious about doing more research into the setting that he was in.

But it was really the universal voice and story that I was attracted to, about a young man who was forced to make some very difficult choices with very extreme consequences and how that ultimately draws us back to the responsibilty of the individual within their community.

Jim is a teriffic actor and he was very diligent. First of all he embraced the role and it was a difficult one. From the moment he set foot on Irish soil he adopted the accent and we surrounded him with people who constantly tweeked it and got it right. He had a dialect coach from Belfast but would go to bars and talk to people just to have them correct him. It got to a point where we would go to a bar and people would ask him what street he was from... we then we knew we got it right! He was absolutely brillant.

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