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''8.5 Hours'' is a 2008 Irish film written and directed by Brian Lally. The film tells the story of one frantic day in the lives of four Dublin software workers during the final months of Ireland's Celtic Tiger boom years. The film stars Lynette Callaghan, Art Kearns, Victor Burke and Jonathan Byrne. The film won several awards on the Irish film festival circuit, including Best Irish Feature Film at the International Film Festival Ireland in Clonmel (2009), Best Actress award for Lynette Callaghan at the Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival in Belfast (2009) and was awarded 2nd place in the Best Feature category at the Waterford Film Festival. ''8.5 Hours'' went on a limited Irish cinema release in January 2010 and was released on DVD throughout Ireland in November 2010. It was released on DVD and VOD in North America by the American distributor Breaking Glass Pictures in March 2011. The film was the first feature produced by the Irish production company Instigator Films. == Plot == ''8.5 Hours'' is a contemporary ensemble drama that mixes serious drama with black comedy and has some very dark and unexpected plot twists. The film is set in 2007 just before Ireland's Celtic Tiger was about to end and the plot intertwines the four parallel narratives of the lead characters; Rachel, Eoin, Frank and Tony. Their lives are linked as they all work together in the same office in a small Irish software company. Rachel, played by Lynette Callaghan, is an ambitious marketing executive who on turning 30 appears to panic about what she perceives as her lack of achievement at a time of great economic opportunity. She becomes obsessed with an overpriced apartment in Dublin's prestigious Ballsbridge area and after a bruising opening scene where her boyfriend ends their relationship because she had a drunken one night stand, Rachel is determined to buy the apartment on her own at whatever cost. All closing bids for the apartment must be in by the end of the day so for most of the film, Rachel is preoccupied with a race-against-time to raise her salary in order to get a mortgage she can't afford. As she runs out of time, she becomes increasingly desperate and irrational and ends up blackmailing her boss to give her an unreasonable pay rise. Eoin, played by Victor Burke is a computer programmer who is about to get married to his fiancee Lisa (played by Clodagh Reid). Initially he appears to be a very ordinary character who is becoming stressed about his impending marriage due to its spiraling costs as Lisa makes increasingly extravagant wedding arrangements. However, as this story unfolds, Eoin's character is revealed to have a history of bisexual encounters with other men. Simon, a handsome French man (played by French actor Frederic Ledoux) who seduced Eoin at a party the previous year, unexpectedly resurfaces and wants to meet Eoin that day for a coffee. The meeting with Simon puts Eoin on the spot as Simon confronts him about getting married and whether he prefers boys or girls. Frank, played by Art Kearns is a senior computer programmer in the company. His story is revealed quite late in the film. For most of the early section, he appears to be a grumpy, angry character who has some issue with his wife, and away from the eyes of his fellow workers, vents his anger by smashing a computer printer to pieces with his bare hands. He doesn't communicate much with the other characters and most of his story is internal and revealed through flashbacks as he mulls over the past. Eventually, it is revealed that he is troubled over his wife's uncomfortable fondness with his best friend David (played by Brendan McCormack). Tony, played by Jonathan Byrne is a fun-loving, cocaine-sniffing womaniser who casually shambles through his job in the software company. His story opens with a bawdy bedroom romp but as he can't even get the girl's name right, that soon ends in a row. Arriving late at work, Tony appears to be a happy-go-lucky type who never takes things too seriously. However, he is troubled by some strange, puzzling letters he has been receiving and after one is left at work, he visits a church to meet a bizarre old woman called Maggie (Geraldine Plunkett). She reveals that she is the mother of a girl he had an affair with the previous year who killed herself shortly afterwards. She accuses him of treating her badly. Tony denies the claims and storms off. For the rest of the day, Tony is deeply troubled by memories of not returning the girl's calls when she was clearly distressed and in the final scene of the film, Maggie shows up at his apartment to tell him a piece of very disturbing news. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「8.5 Hours」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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