“The Journey seems like your typical buddy movie, though with one significant twist. The film’s central characters aren’t cliché Hollywood cops, they’re the true-life warrior politicians who negotiated the landmark 2006 peace agreement in Northern Ireland, winding down the Troubles to what was (in theory) an official endpoint.
“In the scolding/conservative/uptight corner, we have Dr. Ian Paisley (Timothy Spall), the 80-year-old founder and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party. Paisley has been battling the Irish Republican Army for close to 40 years, and he will not stand down. In the other corner, the impish/bad-boy/rascal one, is Martin McGuinness (Colm Meaney), the Sinn Féin MP and veteran leader of the IRA.
“Paisley and McGuinness despise each other, and have for decades. Yet the two have never met and they have come together in St. Andrews, Scotland, to hammer out an agreement. Written by Colin Bateman and directed by Nick Hamm, The Journey is a made-up drama about what was said that day. It’s a juicy speculative two-hander.” - Variety
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