Death and Nightingales

It's good but, the ending is not satisfying. Location and sound mixing 👌

I enjoyed this movie but if there is only 3 parts and that is it I am disappointed on how they ended it. Is there more?

The scenery is probably the only element of this three-part series that isn't bleak and grim. Set in 1880s Northern Ireland, Beth lives with her wealthy, landowner/quarry owner stepfather, Billy, who is a depressed, occasionally violent, frequently drunk, lecherous and bitter man. She falls in love with Liam, a local Catholic tenant farmer and pro-Parnell Republican who convinces her to assist a plot to procure dynamite. Matthew Rhys as the bitter Billy delivers the most passionate, believable performance. Ann Skelly as Beth veers from wooden and expressionless to histrionic overacting with long, boring monologues. Jamie Dornan's Liam is mostly sour and cold-it's hard to work up much interest in his character. Would have preferred him to be more charming and seductive to believe that Beth, who is in her 20s and well educated, would want to do anything to be with him. He looks good, of course, but has absolutely no personality.

Death and Nightingales is apparently based on a book by 'the greatest Irish novelist you've never heard of', Eugene McCabe. Cartainly I hadn't, but if this is a faithful adaptation, maybe he's got something after all. As bodice-ripping dramas go, there's enough mystery and surpressed passion to give Wuthering Heights or Jamaica Inn a run for its money. Excellent performances from the whole cast, although Michael Smiley was woefully underused in the opening installment. I can only assume he has a bigger role to play yet. I was annoyed to see a schoolboy error in referring to Mercy as Beth in the cast list initially, but happily that has now been corrected! Anyway, to end on a positive note, the atmosphere in this production is fantastic, the Irish scenery is put to superb use in creating the aforementioned, and I was utterly absorbed from start to finish.

Skelly, Rhys and Dornan heavily invest in their formal Theater training for a deeply emotional rendition of Eugene McCabe's historical novel of the same name.

The agonizing dialogue will either put one off immediately or serve to capacitate an intense immersive process into the emotional auras of that time.