Intermission

Lehiff (Colin Farrell) is a petty criminal always involved in trouble. Lehiff’s nemesis, Garda Detective Jerry Lynch (Colm Meaney) presents himself as a savior who fights the "scumbags" on Dublin’s streets, and enlists the help of Ben Campion (Tomas O'Suilleabhain), an ambitious film-maker and the bane of his "go-softer" boss, who considers Lynch too nasty a subject to be shown on a mainstream “docusoap” series on Irish terrestrial TV.

Ben is told to focus his attention on Sally (Shirley Henderson), who helped passengers after their double-decker bus crashes on its side. Sally is deeply insecure about her looks, and grows bitter when her sister Deirdre (Kelly Macdonald) flaunts her new boyfriend, Sam (Michael McElhatton), a middle-aged bank manager who has left his wife of 14 years, Noeleen (Deirdre O'Kane), leaving her to question her own self-worth as a woman and wife.

Deirdre is the ex-girlfriend of John (Cillian Murphy), who is utterly lost without Deirdre and will do anything to win her back. Thus, he gets involved in an absurd plan: kidnap Sam, force him to go to his bank, and get ransom money. This plan involves Mick (Brían F. O'Byrne), the man who had driven the bus which crashed, and Lehiff. As might be expected, things go awry when Sam, who has the money, is assaulted by an enraged Noeleen on the street. Mick and John flee the scene without their money.

Mick becomes obsessed with getting revenge on the boy, Philip (Taylor Molloy), who had lobbed the stone into the windshield, causing him to swerve and crash the bus he was driving (and for which he got fired). Things do not go quite his way, and he ends up learning a bitter lesson. As for Lehiff, Lynch corners him in an open field, and the scene is set for a confrontation that ends in a way nobody expects.

As the credits roll, Noeleen and Sam are in their house watching television, obviously back together, with her bullying him into changing the channel by hand, as opposed to using the remote control.