My review was written in March 1992 after watching the film at a Times Square screening room.
Excellent performances enliven a story that's as old as the hills in "The Playboys". Latest in a spate of Irish-set films should attract a modest audience.
Pic started off with a hitch when originally cast star Annette Bening dropped out on the eve of production. Replacement Robin Wright (Mrs. Sean Penn) was a felicitous choice, in her best film acting to date.
Story by Shane Connaughton, who co-scripted "My Left Foot", concerns an Irish lass (Wright) in 1957 who's shamed by her fellow townsfolk for being an unwed mother. She refuses to name the father, and in an eventful opening reel, one of her suitors (Adrian Dunbar of "Hear My Song") commits suicide.
It turns out he wasn't the daddy, but a new love enters her life with the arrival of Milo O'Shea's troupe of traveling actors, "The Playboys". Newest thesp in the company (Aidan Quinn) immediately impresses Wright and eventually beds her,. Fly in the ointment is the local constable (Albert Finney) who has always been in love with Wright and explodes into violence.
This familiar pattern of headstrong girl and passionas brimming beneath the surface is well directed by first time Scottish helmer GIlles MacKinnon, though the pace slow in middle reels as plot gives way to the troupe's enjoyable stage performances. Subplots involving Wright as troupe member Ian McElhinney's activities as an IRA terrorist are downpeddled.
Especially delicious is O'Shea's mummery, whether portraying "Othello" or staging an impromptu theatrical version of "Gone with the Wind" after watching the original at a local movie house.
Among the principals, American thesp Wright is vibrant and earthy. Heretofore used mainly as a decorative beauty ("The Princess Bride"), he gets to expand on the histrionics of hr best previous assignment, the recently released feature "Denial" (a/k/a "Loon").
Finney is a tower of strength as the repressed lover, and even gets to freak out in a violent scene reminiscent of Orson Welles as the elderly publisher busting up a room in "Citizen Kane". Quinn has the most ambiguous of the major roles but succeeds in keeping the audience guessing ast to whether he's a good guy or not.
Jack Conroy, who previously lensed Jm Sheridan's features, captures the remote Irish countryside with miniaturist skill.
Excellent performances enliven a story that's as old as the hills in "The Playboys". Latest in a spate of Irish-set films should attract a modest audience.
Pic started off with a hitch when originally cast star Annette Bening dropped out on the eve of production. Replacement Robin Wright (Mrs. Sean Penn) was a felicitous choice, in her best film acting to date.
Story by Shane Connaughton, who co-scripted "My Left Foot", concerns an Irish lass (Wright) in 1957 who's shamed by her fellow townsfolk for being an unwed mother. She refuses to name the father, and in an eventful opening reel, one of her suitors (Adrian Dunbar of "Hear My Song") commits suicide.
It turns out he wasn't the daddy, but a new love enters her life with the arrival of Milo O'Shea's troupe of traveling actors, "The Playboys". Newest thesp in the company (Aidan Quinn) immediately impresses Wright and eventually beds her,. Fly in the ointment is the local constable (Albert Finney) who has always been in love with Wright and explodes into violence.
This familiar pattern of headstrong girl and passionas brimming beneath the surface is well directed by first time Scottish helmer GIlles MacKinnon, though the pace slow in middle reels as plot gives way to the troupe's enjoyable stage performances. Subplots involving Wright as troupe member Ian McElhinney's activities as an IRA terrorist are downpeddled.
Especially delicious is O'Shea's mummery, whether portraying "Othello" or staging an impromptu theatrical version of "Gone with the Wind" after watching the original at a local movie house.
Among the principals, American thesp Wright is vibrant and earthy. Heretofore used mainly as a decorative beauty ("The Princess Bride"), he gets to expand on the histrionics of hr best previous assignment, the recently released feature "Denial" (a/k/a "Loon").
Finney is a tower of strength as the repressed lover, and even gets to freak out in a violent scene reminiscent of Orson Welles as the elderly publisher busting up a room in "Citizen Kane". Quinn has the most ambiguous of the major roles but succeeds in keeping the audience guessing ast to whether he's a good guy or not.
Jack Conroy, who previously lensed Jm Sheridan's features, captures the remote Irish countryside with miniaturist skill.