Tara Road

One of Maeve Binchey's most popular novels, complete with a useful American angle, this was an obvious choice for the big screen. However, the story of two women (one Irish, one American) who house-swap makes for a difficult transition in practice. Quite a long novel, it also compresses awkwardly, losing much of its charm and intelligence along the way. The film is not helped by lack-lustre central performances. MacDowell seems out of practice, and Williams (almost invariably seen hitherto in starchy British roles) does not make a convincing Irish housewife. Her emoting seems brittle (even shrill) and she seems uncomfortable with emotion generally. Overall the film looks good and is well filmed, but does not hold the attention except perhaps for die-hard Binchey fans, many of whom will be disappointed at the inevitable over-simplification.

I think the movie did a good job of "summarizing" the book. I don't think it's possible to develop characters as well on-screen, as in a few hundred pages of paper and ink. A mini-series would have done the book more justice. I can see where it would be possible to see this movie, and be disappointed.

If you've read the book, you'll like the movie. If you don't like to read, get the audio CDs.

This story is a summary of a book with vivid descriptions of places and people. The "mind movie" that resulted from reading the book, pretty much matched what I saw on the screen. The home in New England... well, didn't look like New England.

Have you ever been so lost you wanted to run away? If you envied Diane Lane's impulsive move to Italy in Under the Tuscan Sun, you'll probably love Andie MacDowell's vacation to Ireland in Tara Road.

Before the much more popular The Holiday, two women swap homes to help each other get over a personal hurdle. Olivia Williams, from Ireland, just got dumped by her husband, Iaian Glen, and travels to America to get her groove back. Andie MacDowell lost her young son in a tragic accident, and she thinks a change of scenery will help. Just like The Holiday, both women make new friends in their new houses and blossom in their new environments. While Olivia's scenes are a bit lighter and full of the fun her character needs, Andie's scenes are a bit darker. She meets Stephen Rea, who helps her deal with her grief and see light at the end of the tunnel. There are so many similarities between the two house-swapping movies, that if you liked one, it's a safe bet you'll like the other. Rent either one with a bunch of girlfriends and have a good time!

Been really wanting to see this movie and it is just being released in North America now so here is my review...

The good - Anything by Maeve Binchy has to be great. Love her work. Her stories, her characters. Really liked "Danny" - he was just as I had imagined him. Also liked "Colm" and "Mona". Loved the scenery of Dublin and seeing what Tara Road looked like. The house is beautiful. Have always liked Andie McDowell... more on that later. The movie is good if taken on its own merit as a story on its own.

The bad - The characters of Ria, Rosemary and Marilyn were just not right. In the book Ria has curly unruly hair and undergoes more of a transformation in Ireland. Marilyn is supposed to be uptight and with short hair... didn't get that here. Rosemary is supposed to be gorgeous - again, not here. Many of the US characters seem more like caricatures than anything. And Andy Vine looks terrible - why would anyone find him attractive compared to Danny?

The ugly - it just differed from the book too much. The book is great and I wanted to see it put on film. This was different, in the same way Circle of Friends was different. If you are a Maeve Binchy fan you will enjoy seeing this on the screen, but it is not the Tara Road I read and loved.

I read the book (quite a large one I must say) some months ago and so it was still fresh in my memory when I saw this film. Well, this is one of the worse book adaptations I ever seen! From where to start? From the fact that the 3/4 of the book are literally gone? From the flat performances of all the actors with the likely exception of Andie MacDowel? The miscasting of Ria and Rosemary? The change of Ria in America that it looks like it happened in a split second? Not explaining why the house was that important?

I understand it is a big book and they should to summarized it, but it was supposed not to lose it's meaning on the way. Well, it certainly did. Ria is a strong woman at the book even before her marriage fell apart. In the film she is portrayed like a weakling, ready to collapse from the first set. She has a smile like a retard on her face and she's like wearing a sign "kick me".

Rosemary is supposed to be drop dead gorgeous woman in the book, while in the film she is more like an overdecorated spinster. Danny is supposed to be a man that looks considerably younger than his age, still having boyish looks in his forties. However, the actor looks like he is a 50 year old pretending he is 40 with that ridiculously long hair....

Lastly, the meaning of the house of the title, is that Danny was the one that chose it and hanged on to it in the first place and Ria only learned to love it because of Danny's affection to it. That makes his betrayal even bigger, since he made her love the house and he finally was trying to get her out of it.

The only reasons I did not grade this film with a 4 or a 3, was the cameo appearance of Ms. Binchy (the book's author) at a scene (at the restaurant's bar, the lady dressed in blue) and the somehow more condensed ending, even if seemed quite rushed.

If you really want to feel the magic of Maeve Binchy's book in a film, I would definitely recommend "The Circle of Friends (1995)".