Written by Owen McCafferty
Directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn
Starring Lesley Manville, Liam Neeson, David Wilmot and Amit Shah
MPAA rating: R for brief sexuality/nudity
Running time: 1 hour and 32 minutes

by Fiona Underhill

Northern Irish filmmaking duo Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn have taken on the teen road-trip movie in Cherrybomb (2009, starring Rupert Grint and Robert Sheehan) and the Belfast punk-rock scene in Good Vibrations (2012, starring Jodie Whittaker, Liam Cunningham and Adrian Dunbar). Now, they take a much more stripped-back, intimate and quiet approach in this portrayal of an older couple – Joan (Lesley Manville) and Tom (Liam Neeson) dealing with Joan’s diagnosis of breast cancer. This is Ordinary Love.