The Journey

"Today's headlines can make it tough to believe in the possibility of peace between warring factions. Yet this is just what happened only 10 years ago, when the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin (the political party of the Irish Republican Army) signed the St. Andrews Agreement, bringing peace to Northern Ireland after nearly 40 years of violence. The Journey dramatises the negotiations that led to the Agreement — negotiations that transpired not in some hallowed hall but, rather, in a minivan traversing the Scottish countryside.

"Protestant minister and DUP leader Ian Paisley (Spall) and Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness (Meaney) are arch-enemies, each deeply involved in the Troubles, which have long plagued Northern Ireland. They've both agreed to participate in the British-organized talks in St. Andrews, Scotland, but many doubt their capacity to bury the hatchet. Paisley has to break from the talks to attend his golden wedding anniversary, and when rain forces him to fly out of Edinburgh instead of a nearby airport, McGuinness comes along for the ride. What neither knows is that their seemingly innocent driver (Freddie Highmore) is a British agent, the van is bugged, and a very nervous Tony Blair (Toby Stephens) is watching in desperate hope that these old antagonists can settle the matter during the afternoon detour." (Toronto International Film Festival)

Less