Pretty Good

Fantastic!

Best movie of this year hands down!

A Major Disappointment

An end of a privileged era...Irish that served the British are about to lose it all. It is 1920 and independence for southern Ireland is only a year away. There is violence and guerrilla warfare.Set amongst this Lois (the lead heroine) of this novel film flirts with a British Captain and falls in love with an Irish nationalist. In the end during their second meeting (Lois and nationalist) the British Captain is killed and Lois goes off to greener pastures.The setting is beautiful but there is a gloom of impending defeat.The best part of the movie is the beautifully recreated scenery of 1920.The story sort of limps along in a vapid way with no tension or excitement. The 3 way love triangle just isn't defined well enough to carry the entire thing--at least not the way it was done.Most cinema goers would have no clue about the political importance of the piece...the word BLAND comes to mind as an over all description of the movie.About the only people this film might appeal to are those interested in Irish politics however not the N. Irish that is for sure it is much too sympathetic to the rebels. For the rest of us the politics is a yawn.DO NOT RECOMMEND

A family of British aristocrats living in County Cork finds their comfortable lifestyle threatened by the Irish rebellions of the 1920s, when the headstrong older daughter develops a fatal attraction for a notorious local patriot (i.e. terrorist) with a price on his head.This won't be the last film to dissect the bloodlust lurking just beneath the glacial politeness of upper-crust British manners, but the perceptive screenplay (adapted from a novel by Elizabeth Bowen) shows an unbiased lack of sympathy for either side of the conflict. Deborah Warner makes an easy transition from a theater background for her feature film debut, directing a first-rate cast (including Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, and Fiona Shaw) with impressive, understated visual flair and an eye for the telling detail. The specific Anglo-Irish perspective could make the film a tough sell to American moviegoers unschooled in the social/political snake pit of Emerald Isle antipathy (here placed into an intriguing, almost tribal context), which may explain why the promotional trailers make it look like any other romantic melodrama in funny period dress. It's a misrepresentation likely to alienate the film's target audience, but discerning viewers should find plenty here to provoke their thoughts.

Having tried to read the novel on which this movie was based and not enjoyed doing so all that much, this film was an unexpected delight. While Bowen's style is often tedious, Banville's adaptation moves along at a sprightly pace that belies it's tragic, Chekovian subject matter. Like BBC's Persuasion and Vanity Fair, this film tries to rescue the period adaptation from the asphixiating clutches of Merchant-Ivory while retaing a large degree of textual integrity. Banvill, who brought the Irish "Big House" novel into the postmodern era with _Birchwood_ brings a contemporary eye to this tale of Anglo-Irish Aristocrats in the Last Days of their tenure. It's wonderfully acted, with Jane Birkin giving the sort of display of gap-toothed Anglo-Saxon diffidence that made _La Belle Noisuise_ tolerable; Maggie Smith doing her usual indignant aristocrat, Fiona Shaw playing Fiona Shaw, and Micheal Gambon thankfully playing an Anglo-Irish rather than Irish character. It's a film that anyone with a casual interest in Irish history will be enlightened by and one that anyone with an eye for beauty will be delighted by.

A great great film on many levels. As always, Maggie Smith turns in an amazing performance, as she has consistently done so throughout her career. Jane Birkin, Fiona Shaw and Michael Gambon also are wonderful to watch. The story itself is quite moving and engaging. Beautifully filmed and scored.