Baltimore (film)

Baltimore (released as Rose's War in the United States and Germany) is a 2023 thriller film directed by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy. It is based on the life of Rose Dugdale, a British heiress-turned-IRA member, played by Imogen Poots. The film is an international co-production between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Baltimore premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on 1 September 2023, and was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 22 March 2024.

Plot
Rose Dugdale is former debutante who left England to become a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. In April 1974, she leads an art heist at Russborough House, the home of Sir Alfred Beit.

The film's title refers to the village of Baltimore in County Cork.

Cast

 * Imogen Poots as Rose Dugdale
 * Jude McClean as young Rose
 * Jack Meade as Eddie Gallagher
 * Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Dominic
 * Lewis Brophy as Martin
 * Patrick Martins as Walter
 * Dermot Crowley as Donal
 * John Kavanagh as Sir Alfred Beit
 * Andrea Irvine as Lady Beit
 * Flynn Gray as Patrick
 * Martha Breen as Sophie
 * Carrie Crowley as Rose's Mother
 * Simon Coury as Rose's Father
 * Vanessa Ifediora as Alice
 * Molly Rose Lawlor as Lizzie
 * Ciaran McKenna as Albert Price

Release
Baltimore was released on digital on 1 March 2024, followed by theatrical release in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 22 March 2024.

Box office
During its opening weekend, the film grossed $65,281 from 61 cinemas in the United Kingdom and $36,773 from 26 cinemas in Ireland.

Critical response
Wendy Ide of The Observer gave the film four out of five stars, calling it "a pleasingly taut heist movie" and "a fascinating psychological study of fanaticism, with [Imogen] Poots's expressive performance unpeeling the layers beneath [Rose] Dugdale's fervent belief in her cause. Kevin Maher of The Times awarded the movie four stars out of five, praising the film as "an impressionistic and sometimes dreamlike account of someone finding meaning in a hopeless world while remaining blind to its enormous human cost."

Wilson Chapman of IndieWire commended Imogen Poots's performance, writing that "Baltimore ultimately hinges on Poots to do most of the heavy work, and the consistently great actor is magnetic in the role, nervy and vulnerable but with a clear-eyed belief in her own convictions that makes her pop off the screen. If the movie isn't ever quite able to inspire the same devotion from the audience that Rose Dugdale has for her cause, watching a protagonist as compelling as her still makes for a thrilling 90 minutes and change." Rodrigo Perez of The Playlist echoed these sentiments, writing that "Poots is riveting as a revolutionary, and the drama knows how to pitch the escalation of intensity, but Baltimore and its sense of guilt and conscience is too obscure to affect the average viewer."