The film opens with a cashier being charmed by Lehiff who, after flirting with the girl, punches her in the face and steals from the till. It quickly moves to John and Deirdre who are a recently separated young couple. The film will revolve around their extended friends. It is quickly revealed that Lehiff is a petty criminal always involved in trouble. Lehiff's nemesis, Garda Detective Jerry Lynch, presents himself as a saviour whose main mission is to fight the "scumbags" on Dublin's streets. He enlists the help of Ben Campion, an ambitious film-maker and the bane of his "go-softer" boss, who considers Lynch too nasty a subject to be shown on a mainstream “docusoap” series on Irish television. Next up is Mick, a Dublinbus driver. While on his route, Sally boards and is shown to be deeply insecure about her looks. She asks Mick about some hair on her lip and he mocks her playfully. As the bus journey continues, a young boy called Philip is shown throwing a rock at his bus resulting in a bad crash that Ben winds up shooting the aftermath of. Ben is told to focus his attention on Sally, Deirdre's sister, who helped the passengers after the double-decker bus crashed. She grows bitter when Deirdre flaunts her new boyfriend, Sam, a middle-aged bank manager who has left his wife of fourteen years, Noeleen, leaving her to question her own self-worth as a woman and wife. John is utterly lost without Deirdre and is determined to win her back. Mick, having become suspended from his job and low on funds, comes up with a scheme involving Lehiff and John. They kidnap Sam and hold Deirdre captive. They force Sam to go to his bank to get money for a ransom. Just as the plan seems to be working outeverything goes wrong, as Sam is assaulted by his enraged wife Noeleen on the street and Gardaí are forced to intervene. Mick and John flee without their money. Mick later loses his job after he is wrongfully blamed for the crash and becomes obsessed with taking revenge on the boy who caused it. After chasing Philip in his car, he loses control and is left balancing over the canal. Philip sits on the bonnet and jumps off, letting the car drop into the canal. Detective Lynch chases and corners Lehiff in an open field, and decides to take him on, while Ben films everything. Unfortunately Lynch miscalculates and Lehiff gets the upper hand and threatens to kill him. Ben snatches at the gun and shoots Lehiff and Lynch covers it all up. As the credits roll, Noeleen and Sam are shown reunited in their house watching television. She is sitting purposely on the remote control and bullying him into changing the channels by hand.
Cast
Colin Farrell as Lehiff, a petty criminal with a penchant for getting into trouble with the law
The movie earned €2.5 million at the Irish box office, briefly becoming the most successful independent Irish film. The film was well received by critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an aggregate rating of 73% based on 93 reviews, with the critical consensus describing the film as "An edgy and energetic ensemble story". Noted critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film good reviews. Roeper described it as "a likable film about nasty people". Patrick Condren became the first Irishman to be nominated at the Taurus World Stunt Awards following his work in the film. In the biggest single stunt ever filmed in Ireland, a double-decker bus was flipped 20 metres into the air.
Box office
The film earned $896,993 at the North American domestic box office and $3,959,305 internationally for a worldwide total of $4,856,298, against a production budget of $5 million.
