Maze

1983 and IRA prisoner Larry Marley (Vaughn-Lawlor) is moved to the Maze Prison, finding that both republican and loyalist prisoners occupy the same ward. Larry initially angers his fellow prisoners, including his OC Oscar (McCann), as he volunteers for skivvy work, which political prisoners refuse to engage in. But Larry hopes the menial jobs will get into the good books of Warden Gordon Close (Ward) and use him in his plan to break out his thirty-eight compatriots…

While the break out itself is explored in minute detail – the chain of command forcing Marley to convince Oscar that he can pull it off, Oscar having to send word outside to get the okay, etc – it’s what’s happening in this main narrative thrust’s orbit that really sparks interest. On visiting days Marley meets with the wives of the men who died in the hunger strike, which he witnessed, and tries to placate his own partner (Walsh) that this life, the one that has him incarcerated and surrounded by hate and death, is the best one for his family: “I’m going to do something for them, for all of them.” There’s also the question of his son (Ross McKinney) joining ‘the family business’ instead of going to college, something Larry asks his friends on the outside to nip in the bud. Marley cuts a divided and three-dimensional character.

And then there’s Ward’s Close. Already the victim of an attack (prison wardens were targeted at the time), Close’s wife urges him to quit the job, putting pressure on the marriage; his brother was already killed and the family were forced to install cages inside the front door at home; like his charges, and the perpetual hate they have signed up to, he’s in a prison of his own. When Close’s quick thinking saves his wife and daughter from another attack in the car park they feel they have no choice but to leave him.

The burgeoning friendship between these two enemies is an engaging development, hampered somewhat by the audience’s knowledge that Marley is merely using him to achieve his goal: we’re never in doubt that their quiet confessional chats in the office are the real thing.

But everything falls into the place in the final act. The daring breakout itself is an edgy affair with director Stephen Burke (already immersed in the Troubles with shorts After 68 and 81 on his CV) wringing every ounce of tension he can out of the elongated sequence. Tom Vaughn-Lawlor may have been larger than life in Love/Hate but turns it down somewhat for his first big screen role. Barry Ward always convinces while McCann pulls off the quiet authority needed for Oscar.

A slow burning thriller with three-dimensional characters, Maze will entertain.