Hidden Agenda

7/27/2026

I think that with the possible expection of "Kes" (1969), I was always put off Ken Loach's films because of his so overtly self-indulging political agenda. This one also allows him to have a go at the British establishment too, as it bathes in the fertile waters of Irish political discord and by the end of it I wasn't quite sure if anyone's agenda was very well hidden. It all centres around the killing of an American lawyer. An high-level investigation is ordered and so Scotsman "Kerrigan" (Brian Cox) is sent from London to look into the circumstances of the murder - to the obvious chagrin of the RUC's "Brodie" (Jim Norton). Pretty swiftly, he starts to smell a rat and together with the dead man's girlfriend "Ingrid" (an underused Frances McDormand) begins what soon becomes quite a perilou