FOYLED AGAIN? (JUMP)

Derry, Londonderry - whatever you choose to call it - has not had a lot of fictional movies set in the city.

Paul Greengrass's powerful 'Bloody Sunday', with James Nesbitt as Ivan Cooper, is probably the best known - although that was mostly shot in Dublin's Ballymun, with only a handful location shoots in the Creggan and Guildhall Square.

In 1990, local filmmaker Margo Harkin and the Derry Film and Video Workshop were behind 'Hush A Bye Baby' - an acclaimed low budget drama about a schoolgirl who hides her pregnancy from her Catholic parents.

Shot in the city and Donegal, it featured strong lead performances by Emer McCourt and Michael Liebmann and featured Sinead O'Connor in her acting debut in a supporting role.

In 1997, the city also featured in a movie 'Bogwoman' by local filmmaker Tom Collins. 

Rachael Dowling starred as a Donegal woman who moves to the Bogside in 1958 to eke out a new life for her and her fatherless son.

She weds Peter Mullan's character Barry but finds his conservatism stifling. 

Both of these movies were made within the straitjacket of extremely low budgets.

But now, the city of culture provides a stirring location for 'Jump' - a new feature by accomplished television and movie director Kieron J Walsh which has a bit more cash to splash but still has to stylishly overcome its budget limitations.

Walsh's previous outing on the big screen was the disappointing Roddy Doyle penned romantic comedy, 'When Brendan Met Trudy' in 2000 with Peter McDonald and Flora Montgomery.

He has, however, built up a decent career directing TV drama including 'Watermelon' with Anna Friel, the first series of RTE's Dublin restaurant series 'Raw' and Samuel Beckett's 'Rough for Theatre 1' with Milo O'Shea and David Kelly for Channel 4 and RTE.

'Jump' reunites him with Monaghan actress Charlene McKenna, who he worked with on 'Raw', and was premiered at the Belfast Film Festival last year, receiving a screening at the Foyle Film Festival as well.

Now on theatrical release in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, the movie begins with gorgeous shots of the Foyle Bridge where a gangland boss's daughter, Greta Feeney (Leeds actress, Nichola Burley) is dressed as an angel and contemplating suicide.

What unfolds in Walsh and Steve Brookes' ambitious script is a madcap multi-stranded tale set in New Year's Eve.

Going back in time, we see Greta being talked into not jumping, after a chance encounter on the bridge with Martin McCann's sensitive Pearse.

Moments before, a bloodied and bruised Pearse has been dangled off the bridge by two hoodlums, Ross (Ciaran McMenamin) and Jack (Packy Lee) for asking too many awkward questions about the disappearance of his drug dealing brother.

It transpires both thugs work for Greta's corrupt nightclub owning dad, Frank (Lalor Roddy) who Pearse robs in an act of revenge.

Frank calls in a tormented old acquaintance, Johnny (Richard Dormer) to help Ross and Jack track down Pearse.

Meanwhile best pals, Marie (Charlene McKenna) and the promiscuous party girl Dara (Valene Kane) stumble around the city, wondering what has happened to Greta.

With its mostly young cast, time shifting narrative and rip roaring pace, 'Jump' mostly recalls Doug Liman's breakthrough 1999 comic drama 'Go' which also intertwined plots on the one night featuring twentysomethings caught up in criminality.

But what is also striking about Walsh's enjoyable romp is that it is a genuinely post-Troubles movie, an Alternative Ulster with no reference to the politics of Northern Ireland.

This is a movie that could be set in any city and while Free Derry Corner and its murals pop up onscreen, they only serve as locations for cars ferrying characters who are just passing through.

Part gangster flick, part black comedy, part drama, 'Jump' walks a tightrope for its 84 minutes running time and occasionally Walsh and Brookes' screenplay wobbles.

However, it mostly succeeds thanks to the vibrancy of the production and its cast.

Full credit should go to David Rom for his gorgeous and clever cinematography. 

The Maiden City has never looked so stunning onscreen - especially with New Year's Eve fireworks majestically exploding around the banks of the Foyle in the dead of night.

Several scenes in Shipquay Street have an almost surreal feel to them, as the camera appears to drunkenly float around New Year's revellers in fancy dress.

The movie is also propelled by some assured editing by Emer Reynolds and a pulsating soundtrack, supervised by Gary Welch.

Walsh elicits decent performances from his cast, with Charlene McKenna, Lalor Roddy and Enniskillen actor, Ciaran McMenamin all shining.

However, the star of the show, after his recent turn as Terri Hooley in 'Good Vibrations', is once again Richard Dormer who looks born to play the role of the haunted gangster, Johnny.

Dormer seems entirely comfortable in the role and it is clear he is emerging as a powerful screen presence to rival other accomplished character actors like Stephen Rea, Ciaran Hinds and James Nesbitt. 

Similarly, Belfast actor Martin McCann continues to impress with his natural screen presence. 

'Jump' may not scale the heights of Alejandro's Gonzalez Inarritu's dazzling Mexican drama 'Amores Perros', which wove three stories around a car crash, but it is well worth catching in cinemas.

It would be a shame if Walsh's stylish movie, which is reminiscent of Gregor Jordan's Aussie crime drama 'Two Hands' with Heath Ledger, were to fade away quickly at the box office while other brain numbing, big budget Hollywood fare succeeds.

Taken together with 'Good Vibrations', 'Jump' suggests Northern Ireland's film industry is finding its own voice, post Troubles.

Hopefully, it will do well enough at home and abroad to enable other directors to tell their own stories about contemporary Northern Ireland.

(‘Jump' opened in cinemas in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic on April 26, 2013. This review originally appeared on the Eamonnmallie.com)