The reviews are unanimous in their approval, and the spread is narrow: every critic lands in the same broad band of good to strong. Most agree that the film’s anger about the Guildford Four’s wrongful conviction is its engine, and that Jim Sheridan handles the material fairly without preaching. The praise clusters on the two central performances. Daniel Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite are singled out again and again, and most critics say the father-son relationship, rather than the courtroom, is where the film does its best work.
The reservations are mild and mostly about shape. RogerEbert.com finds the middle prison stretch loses urgency and could be tighter. The New Yorker thinks the film is weaker as straight docudrama, blurring details in the trial scenes, and Time Out also notes that facts have been adjusted for emotional effect. The Independent finds it solid rather than uncomfortable. Nobody dissents on the whole; the most reserved review still calls the prison scenes precise and purposeful.