jeremy3 James Caan was outstanding in an unusual role. Usually Caan plays tough-guy cops and gangsters. In this role, he was a kindly high school teacher in Chicago. The very best part of the movie was in the first few minutes. It was critical to the point of the whole movie. Caan's Kieran Johnson is teaching history at a Chicago high school and his students are disrespecting him and making fun of him. Johnson brings up the stats on how many of them will end up having a long-term job and how many will end up in jail. I loved this, because it showed that Ireland in 1939 was not totally alien from America in 1998. There were problems in Ireland, just like there are problems today in America. The movie was basically about how hardship and class tensions create an inhuman atmosphere for all involved. Johnson has never known whom his father was. His mother is very old, and has already had a stroke. Johnson can no longer ask his Mom about who his Dad really was. So, Johnson goes to the village where his Mom came from in Ireland. He stays at a bed and breakfast where an elderly woman there retells the whole story of his parents. Johnson father was a very nice man, who was a victim of his class and his position in society. He was a lowly laborer. His parents have a farm that is owned by a widow woman with a daughter. The father has died by this time, and was in the military (a position of some prestige in Ireland at the time). I really felt for Aidan Quinn's portrait of the mysterious lost father of Johnson. He was kindly and loved the daughter of the owner of his parents' farm with all his heart. Stephen Rea plays the firebrand priest of the Catholic Church in the village. Rea's priest shows how blind religiosity can actually destroy decent people's lives. The parents of Johnson weren't even able to get married! It was a sin to have any relations between a man and woman, unless you were of the right class. This movie horribly shows how a decent man (Aidan Quinn) is completely disenfranchised and criminalized for being truly in love with a woman. John Cusack comes in as an American journalist-pilot. Cusack highlights how in Ireland at the time, America was seen as an escape from their miserable lives of conformity. Cusack talks about Greta Garbo, whom Johnson's Mom adores in 1939. Garbo represented a liberated woman in 1939. The Irish couldn't dream of such a thing in those days. I really loved this movie, because it was honest and truthful. Ireland wasn't all romantic, like many movies show it as. In addition, the movie showed that things were and are never great. At the beginning, Johnson is shown in 1990s Chicago. There is great tension and issues going on in Johnson's life. So, Ireland of the 30s was not totally different from today's World. There is still the issue of resources. There are still problems in all families, whether 30s Ireland or today's America.

cogitoergosum-1 Oh my God, I'm on a roll with these obscure movies I never heard of. Somebody please tell me how these movies had little if any press yet are so good.This gem takes place in both the modern day and back in Ireland in the late 1930's. It is a story of where one man came from. Who his father was and how he was connected to his mother.Gorgeous cinematography and solid acting make this a must see! Once again, it caters to my love of movies about people with flavor, zest, zeal and the bittersweet truths of life.Give it a watch, you'll be glad you did.

Leslie King Overall, I was very disappointed by what could have been a much more interesting and compelling story. James Caan and Aidan Quinn, such terrific actors, are so watered down by lines that just drag by, in the ordinary and unmoving. Many of the scenes, perceived as fragmented, fail at supporting cohesion for the movie's larger direction and development. Kiernan Johnson (James Caan) is a Chicago, history high school teacher, who returns to Ireland, to learn about the history of his father, dating back to 1939. Meanwhile, his mother, Fiona, (Francoise Graton) is hanging onto to her life, subsequent to suffering a stroke. Kiernan's sister, cares for Fiona. Young Jack (Jacob Tierney), Kiernan's nephew joins him in this historical journey, to the home roots of Ireland. Kiernan, via telephone reads his father's loving words, that he wrote to, Fiona, age seventeen, the time in which her mother, wrongly accuses Kiernan O'Day (Aidan Quinn) of raping her daughter, and hence preventing their marriage. But the two mutually consummate their relationship before marriage. Kiernan is a dedicated man of the land and agriculture, and Fiona (Moya Farrelly) is grounded and passionate in her love for Kiernan. The pressure for Kiernan to run away with Fiona and clear his conscious of the fat and guilt laden Catholic Irish tradition is too much for him to bear. He hangs himself at the gift tree, where the two would leave presents for one another.There is also an interesting scene with John Cusak as Eddie Sharp, an American pilot drawn to the land of roots. The play on contrasts and similarities to young Kiernan and Fiona are then more evident. Difficult depictions of 1939 Ireland are cumbersome and the actors do so well, under much less than favorable conditions, religious, societal, and cultural. Agricultural work is physically demanding and even the strongly built Kiernan O'Day is unable to survive the psychological terrain, reinforced by priest Mooney (Stephen Rea), who stops after excavating fault, leaving a mess, with no intent to fill in the now empty spaces with love, life, and forgiveness, also represented by Jesus, but ignored by the single minded priest. Kiernan is a subject of Mooney's demise and the outcome is a tragic death. Mooney is probably the most convincing actor, one we despise, for lack of any humanity in relating to his congregation. He is so disconnected from them, and the absurdity of it all, really diminishes our preconceived notions of understanding Kiernan. For we think that Kiernan is much too smart and intelligent, than to be bull-dozed over by a priest, whose only interest is objectifying people into the perfection of his perceived Christianity.The film is a stark depiction of Ireland 1939, one that we can all learn from, by such grueling and inhuman preaching and societal shaping of the period. Unfortunately, the script falls short of truly capturing one's heart, mind, and soul in the way that it really should, despite such tedious subject matter. The story would have probably been better served if Kiernan Johnson's sister joined her brother and son. It looks like she could have used the vacation too.

Juliette2005 I stumbled upon this movie last night on the tele and I was quite taken with it, for a while. The plot (s) are all fine, but it just felt like the writer was trying to stuff a whole lot of stuff into a pretty small bag.The main story- that of Ciaran and Fiona- is wonderful, fresh, and fun. Quinn and the girl are lovely together, and their scenes, particularly learning to dance and making love for the first time are infused with a reality and life that is rarely seen in film.There are a few mis-steps, I didn't really enjoy the 'modern' part of the film, it felt tacked on and not needed, like they didn't trust that their main story would be interesting enough to hold my attention. And John Cusack appears out of nowhere and all sense of reality flies out of the film for those five minutes, he's John Cusack in a plane!But for the most part it's a lovely story well acted.