Ein Vater kämpft um seine Kinder

This is a wonderful movie.

I admit this movie is manipulative, and probably exaggerated for purposes of drama, but what based-on-a-true story movies aren't? At least it goes after the right things: a father having custody of his kids, rather than them being forced to live in an "institution."

The story is based a true situation in the mid 1950s Ireland in which, in the end, the Irish Constitution was amended because of this case. "Desmond Doyle" (Pierce Brosnan) is the loving father whose wife runs off one day with another man, leaving him with three little kids and little visible means of support. Since he didn't have enough finances, the government makes the kids wards of the state and places them in Catholic schools-homes (institutions?).

On that Catholic, or "religious," angle, you get a lot of positive and negative scenes here. You have a bad, nasty almost sadistic nun "Sister Brigid," but the others are fine caring ladies, as they should be. Overall, however, you see a lot of faith portrayed in this film and it's mostly good. Of course, that faith was more out in the open in the '50s than today, but it was inspiring to see in many parts.

Brosnan is excellent in the lead role, a man everyone can identify with: a loving but flawed man. He drinks too much, he swears, he doesn't have a steady job but he has great heart and has great determination to the right thing. One has no trouble rooting for him in this story. I think it's the best role he has ever played, far better than his superficial James Bond or thieves roles he normally plays.But nobody hits you as emotionally as little Evelyn (Sophie Vavasseur), one of Doyle's three kids and the one that is focused upon here. (The two little brothers are not given much screen time, for some reason.) Brosnan's allies in here - the two lawyers (played by Stephen Rea and Aiden Quinn) are likable as is Alan Bates who plays a rugged ex-barrister who winds up helping the team. Bates might have had the best role for the supporting actors.

This is such an involving story, one that you really care about the people, it can bring a tear or two in the end, but what's wrong with that? When you are finished watching this film, you feel good.

EVELYN (2002) *** Pierce Brosnan, Stephen Rea, Julianna Margulies, Aidan Quinn, Alan Bates, John Lynch, Sophie Vavasseur, Niall Beagan, Hugh McDonagh, Mairead Devlin, Frank Kelly. Heart-tugging melodrama based on a true story about a working class Irishman named Desmond Doyle circa 1950s attempted to regain full custody of his three beloved children (including the cute-as-pie Vavasseur as the titular daughter) after their mother abandons them making them wards of the state with stints in a Catholic institution. Brosnan acts up a storm with brio and has able support from Rea, Bates and Quinn as his legal brothers in arms and Margulies as the local barmaid/love interest. Warm-hearted and predictable but none-the-less crowd pleasing. (Dir: Bruce Beresford)

Those of us who endured the gruelling "Angela's Ashes" a few years back probably came away with the impression that living in 1950s Ireland was like living in hell, or maybe slightly worse. We were treated to the dysfunctional family to end all: the father was a mean drunk, the mother was nuts, the kids were brats, their relatives were all vicious (or nuts), they were poorer than dirt, they lived under the heel of a Stalinist Catholic Church, and it NEVER STOPPED RAINING. I left the cinema wondering not why so many Irish had left their country, but why any had stayed.

Now along comes "Evelyn" which also is about poor people in 1950s Ireland, but this seems to be the Hallmark greeting card version. The father (played by Pierce Brosnan using, I imagine, his native accent) does drink, but he's not at all mean about it, his kids are angelic and the mother who abandons them only gets about five minutes of screen time and is soon forgotten. There are relatives who may not like one another but are united in their love for the kids (an enjoyable scene has Evelyn, the daughter, running back and forth conveying messages between two of them). There are a lot of well-meaning friends and acquaintances. They live in a nice home and don't seem to be starving or barefoot. It almost seems no big deal when the mother leaves; if anything, one supposes what little money they have will go further, with one fewer mouth to feed (there's an obligatory scene with Brosnan versus a boiling pot because, of course, all men are morons in the kitchen).

So it seems a little odd when government minions step in and announce that nice Mr. Doyle whose wife left him can't keep his kids any more. Now I know this is based on a true story and I know from other sources there was indeed a vast orphanage gulag (complete with slave labor) in Ireland, partly so that church and state could pretend it's possible to have a functioning country without divorce or abortion (and there was always nearby England). Some of that background would have been fascinating in "Evelyn," but maybe too depressing. So we just have to accept that here's this quaint country with this goofy law arbitrarily taking people's kids away. Doyle readily accedes to the removal, then abruptly wants them back. His efforts make up the remainder of the movie.

The problem here is what psychologists call "cognitive dissonance": on the one hand we're constantly reminded that the struggle of Doyle and his supporters against the church/state hierarchy is "hopeless," on the other hand, there's never really a sensation of hopelessness or desperation. There's a kind of amiable smoothness to the events, and frequent humorous moments. This may be partly due to the guiding hand of director Bruce Beresford who has never met a dramatic situation that he couldn't make cozy, whether it was the Boer War in "Breaker Morant," Southern racial tensions in "Driving Miss Daisy," capital punishment in "Last Dance" or Japanese POW camps in "Paradise Road," the latter also with J. Margulies from "ER." The orphanages in which the kids live don't even seem that unpleasant aside from one fascistic nun whose misdeeds get exposed anyway. The real horror of the Irish orphanage gulag was that it was swept under the rug for decades. This movie functions under a "sunshine law," literally; I don't want to "spoil" the big climactic scene for anyone, but let's just say that if they ever do another version of "Alice in Wonderland," spunky little Sophie Vavasseur is just the one to stand up (and up, and up) and tell all the high muckamucks they're all just a pack of cards.

I hope this isn't making it seem I didn't enjoy the movie; quite the contrary. I especially liked the ordinary-joe quality of Brosnan's Doyle, neither sinister nor saintly, fumbling his way toward becoming a better man for his kids' sake. If anything, I wish they'd given him a few more "warts," if only to make the point that if a parent is not clearly abusing his or her kids, then those kids belong with the parent, and not with the sodding government, or church. Nice to see some of my favorites like Stephen Rea and Aidan Quinn and Alan Bates being such good sports. Julianna M. gets probably her most "normal" film role yet, and shows (at least to me) why she should be a major star. She exudes realness. When male characters contend for her, I buy it. Can't say that about every actress, some of whom probably get paid a lot more for their roles (sorry, Sandra Bullock).

Basically this is a "feel-good" flick, and we can always use those. But like the orphans still behind the walls at the end, there is a darker theme still waiting for it's moment in the sun.

By the way, dog-racing's not a very nice thing either.

I loved this movie from the first time I saw it. It has all a good story needs. It's funny, moving and warm.

The story of Evelyn Doyle is told without too much bias, which is a nice thing to see. It paints a picture of 1950s Ireland that seems more optimistic. The movie is not all about misery. It's about life with all its ups and downs.

The cast is excellent, you just have to love all the characters. I'm especially fond of Pierce Brosnan's performance. You see a side of him that he doesn't get to show much on film. He even sings, what impressed me a lot. He makes you forget about James Bond; he actually becomes Desmond Doyle. I'd love to see him in more films of that kind!

Possibly you're a cynic and think the blarney is laid on too abundantly in this movie. Or you might be calling it "O'Kramer vs. O'Kramer" and this isn't too sappy and predictable to be taken seriously. Well, guess what, it is, and I loved every minute.

Pierce Brosnan, who I used to consider a cardboard cut-out of an actor, plays Desmond Doyle. He's fantastic as a father whose daughter and two sons are removed from their home by the government after their Mother ( in this case, the term can be used in the biological sense only) abandons the family. This being Ireland in the 1950s, there was a law that stated the government can intervene when one parent is found to be insufficient. Desmond has to quit drinking, deal with the death of his father, find a lawyer and rarely see his kids.

Its all okay at the end, and I have to mention that I hope the children's Mother and a certain Sister Bridget have the thankless job of eating ---- in hell for all eternity.

Worth mentioning from the cast is Alan Bates, a hard-drinking consultant to Doyle's case, and his wishes to hear (or not hear) a 'however' from the judges were hilarious.

I had a small problem with the fact that the Mother was not on trial, literally, because it was her abandonment of her family that led to them being separated.

Anyway, its a terrific movie. 8/10.