Sadly Over-hyped

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

It's 1991 Branagan, Michigan. Marie (Neve Campbell) is burying his dead father Chuck. Her mother Ethel Ann (Shirley MacLaine) is unmoved by his death and more concerned about Marie and her boyfriend Peter. She is comforted by Jack (Christopher Plummer). In Belfast, Quinlan (Pete Postlethwaite) and Jimmy Reilly are digging up the wreckage of a B-17. Jimmy finds a ring. Back in 1941 Belfast, Northern Ireland, Ethel Ann (Mischa Barton) is friends with Jack (Gregory Smith) and Chuck. Teddy Gordon (Stephen Amell) is building a house for her and she's in love. Jack, Chuck and Teddy are all going up in B-17.The movie moves back and forth too much and too easily between the time periods in the beginning. The three plot lines don't mash together well. The modern day Irish story is stuck out in the middle of nowhere with its own world. Jimmy could have just showed up with the ring without Belfast. Richard Attenborough is going old school with this romance drama. There is something lacking in the 1941 story. The actors are probably not up to the same standard as their older self. Gregory Smith's little mustache is silly. David Alpay and Stephen Amell are lifeless. Mischa Barton tries but she's too frail unlike the ballsy broad that is Shirley MacLaine. It's probably asking too much for the two young actors to try to be MacLaine and Christopher Plummer. Those two elder statesmen exude real acting power. Their section with Neve Campbell is a great little indie.

Love. Choises. A house. And a ring. Pieces of a impressive story about the traces of past. About walls and crashes. About return and long years in gray skin of expectation. Piece of a time who must be lost, the movie is novel of a old and fascinating way to discover the life in the small details and heavy marks.It is a provocation. Or seductive attempt to move stones to see the reality.Shirley MacLane is impressive. And Neve Campbell, like Mischa Burton , has the chance to burst pattern. A love story, a war and slices of truth. Not more that. Ingredients of many movies in the romantic sauce. In this case, the nuances are more important that colors. So, only an unusual story.

I really wanted to like this movie, which I saw on video recently, several years after its theatrical release. I'm a sucker for a romance, but even I found this overly sentimental. I thought the acting was terrific and the casting was genius - having Christopher Plummer and Shirley McLaine played as youngsters by Gregory Smith (from Everwood) and Misha Barton improved the somewhat uneven movie and made it more watchable than it would have been. I liked the way the mystery played out - I liked that the audience had to piece things together. But once you knew what had happened, it wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped. I also found the IRA violence in the modern story strange and out of place - sort of confusing and unnecessary in a movie that was already fairly complicated. Overall it was a pretty affecting romance and family drama about love and forgiveness and all that good stuff, but not quite as good as it could have been.

I stumbled across this movie when I was searching for movies with Shirley MacLaine. I thought the story sounded OK, but I can't say that my expectations were that great. I usually have problems with sitting still when watching a movie, I often tend to pause and go do other stuff. This time I watched the whole thing at once.I loved this story from beginning to end, because you never really had a clue what really happened or why it happened. I usually don't like movies about the war, but this one wasn't so much about the war as it was about the people involved. When Ethel's heart ached, my heart ached. I haven't found my true love yet, but I can imagine the pain of being parted from the one you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with. If I could have the love that she had for just a second I would be a happy, happy woman. Chick-flick? No, I think everybody can find something in this movie. I definitely learned a lesson. Life is too short to not let things go.