berthine Liked the movie after some initial troubles, as it has lost SO much of the subtlety & history in the book & it puts a magnifying glass on only the last third of the book from when the 2 women connect. But it turned out to be very good in it's own right, concentrating on the crossroads and working through grief. The music also gives a powerful cachet. The Irish male Blarney charmers are snake bastards, well portrayed and seem to come off lightly. The loss of the dream related to them is a familiar theme for Maeve Binchy by now, it also figures in her book Firefly summer. You might enjoy it. Give it a try. It is good stuff for a nice crazy evening with Irish slants & Ruby Wax!

baronedon It may have started slow, however the BUILD UP was worth waiting.The PLOT is not two strangers sharing prospective homes in different countries, NO NO, it is how they each cope first with their own grief and sorrows and then how they assist one another. When Marilyn overheard how not only did he cheat on Ria, he also cheated with her best friend.Again over hearing the statement 'Jack Boot' describing Marilyn whom originally horrified by such remark, later utilized same to show who was in charge. When Marilyn met boss' wife and they hatched a plan to salvage RIA's home and smartly done around the dining room table with all characters present, was a STROKE OF GENIUS..Again no jumping in & out of bed with all actors, just plausible story telling. I do not understand the Colm character. Possibly because every time I see Rea I think of the "Crying Game"..To pair him up with Andie MacDowell is ludicrous as she is 'CLASS PERSONIFIED'. I was happy that no involvement became a better story then jumping into bed..

gradyharp TARA ROAD is a thickly populated movie that reaches for the female audience and succeeds in addressing old problems of infidelity and marriage conflicts. The problem is the story by highly published Irish author Maeve Binchy (adapted from Binchy's novel for the screen by Cynthia Cidre) is 'used goods' and while there are many moments of touching dialog there are equal moments of sham resolutions that in the end prove disappointing despite the cast of actors portraying these only occasionally interesting characters.Two women, each bruised by life events, trade homes (Dublin, Ireland and Connecticut) to find the space to recover. In Connecticut, Marilyn (Andie MacDowell) is recovering from the accidental motorcycle (a birthday gift from his father Greg - August Zirner) death of her young son: grief has made her withdraw and lose her feelings for Greg. In Dublin, Ireland Ria (Olivia Williams) is blissfully happy in her beautiful home on Tara Road which she shares with her two children and her newly discovered unfaithful husband Danny (Iain Glen) - a lothario who has had affairs with Ria's best friend Rosemary (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and now confesses to the pregnancy of his current mistress Bernadette (Heike Makatsch). In too quick an instance Ria and Marilyn decide to swap homes with the hope that separation form their families will give them room to readjust to life. Each woman encounters the friends and neighbors of the other: Marilyn meets restaurateur Colm (Stephen Rea) among Ria's odd assortment of acquaintances while Ria encounters the brother of Greg and some intrusive and over the top friends of Marilyn. Gradually it all comes to a very predictable conclusion that simply solves too many problems too easily.Director Gillies MacKinnon seems to have difficulty deciding how to maintain a tone for the film - a tearjerker versus a situation comedy. There are moments when the audience connects with some of the characters, but these are too few and separated by far too many stretches of weak writing. Despite some fine acting the movie never quite flies. Grady Harp

bgoulding2 Movie is full of over-acting... Irish actors play absurd people, characters that soap TV series dropped 10 years ago... even Maeve B (author) looked stiff as a board in her first cameo scene... the US characters were better but the story needed a big finish... so what was it that went on around the table in Kenilworth Square???? someone tore up a piece of paper and everybody around the table says "wow!".... it isn't possible to tare up a piece of paper and make everything alright, not in law, not in real life, not in Ireland and not in a fantasy B movie. If it were on the telly, we all would have changed channel. "Circle of Friends" wasn't bad at all so that will have to be Maeve's high point I fear.I didn't leave the cinema so it gets a 2/10.BG