This comment contains spoilers.
Having read the other comments, I for once felt compelled to add my own. This is a film that starts off like any run-of-the-mill movie of the week, but soon develops into an off-beat story. I will not bore you with a plot summary, since others have done that for me, but I will state my opinion.
This film opens up a number of story lines and doesn't neatly finish them all. This, to me, is a good thing, not the sign of a bad story. The comments by the others before me seem to focus on plot holes and unexplained things, but I actually find that to be the strength of this movie. I do not see why every loose end needs to be tied up. So the kid sees the devil's tail on Mr. Lenox. Why does that need to be determined to be true or not. To this island's people, Lenox is the devil, whether he is so in real life or not. There are, however, plenty of things to suggest that he may indeed be the devil. He owns land on three sides of the church and wants to own the cemetery, which would presumably get rid of the church and the only official bastion of the faith altogether. He seems to fear Dylan when he finds out that the kid has the same gift as his father, and there are a couple more hints. The only thing that puzzled me, though it may just be me, is the goat. Traditionally, a goat is a sign of the devil, but this one seems to be drawn to Becca, and seems to have nothing to do with Lenox whatsoever. As I stated before, the film is most like a morality play, and it follows that structure quite neatly. Mrs Donovan comes to the island where there is a balance between good and evil and upsets this balance by wanting to part with the land she owns, being part of that balance. She is tempted by the devil (if you will), but Dylan, her son, sees Lenox for who he truly is and we discover in due course that Dylan, like his father, seems to have been put there to fight the good fight. The aforementioned fear or mistrust Lenox has towards Dylan seems to confirm that. There is of course the mention of the islanders "being travellers who believe they descend from the blacksmith who made the nails for Jesus' cross", which ties in nicely with Dylan's gift being possibly divine and a counterbalance to those people's original sin (if you will, again). Once again, there are a number of things that either don't add up or are left to the imagination of the viewer, but to me that makes it an all the more charming film.
Having read the other comments, I for once felt compelled to add my own. This is a film that starts off like any run-of-the-mill movie of the week, but soon develops into an off-beat story. I will not bore you with a plot summary, since others have done that for me, but I will state my opinion.
This film opens up a number of story lines and doesn't neatly finish them all. This, to me, is a good thing, not the sign of a bad story. The comments by the others before me seem to focus on plot holes and unexplained things, but I actually find that to be the strength of this movie. I do not see why every loose end needs to be tied up. So the kid sees the devil's tail on Mr. Lenox. Why does that need to be determined to be true or not. To this island's people, Lenox is the devil, whether he is so in real life or not. There are, however, plenty of things to suggest that he may indeed be the devil. He owns land on three sides of the church and wants to own the cemetery, which would presumably get rid of the church and the only official bastion of the faith altogether. He seems to fear Dylan when he finds out that the kid has the same gift as his father, and there are a couple more hints. The only thing that puzzled me, though it may just be me, is the goat. Traditionally, a goat is a sign of the devil, but this one seems to be drawn to Becca, and seems to have nothing to do with Lenox whatsoever. As I stated before, the film is most like a morality play, and it follows that structure quite neatly. Mrs Donovan comes to the island where there is a balance between good and evil and upsets this balance by wanting to part with the land she owns, being part of that balance. She is tempted by the devil (if you will), but Dylan, her son, sees Lenox for who he truly is and we discover in due course that Dylan, like his father, seems to have been put there to fight the good fight. The aforementioned fear or mistrust Lenox has towards Dylan seems to confirm that. There is of course the mention of the islanders "being travellers who believe they descend from the blacksmith who made the nails for Jesus' cross", which ties in nicely with Dylan's gift being possibly divine and a counterbalance to those people's original sin (if you will, again). Once again, there are a number of things that either don't add up or are left to the imagination of the viewer, but to me that makes it an all the more charming film.