The Eclipse

"The Eclipse" is a surreal walk in the shoes of a few Irish villagers. Some have criticized this piece for being somewhat disjointed and confusing. I must heartily disagree! It is simply a limited time in life of a few very interesting people in Ireland at a Literary Conference and how those lives rode a little rougher when disturbed by the supernatural.

For those who have forfeited pieces of your heart a bloody chunk at a time after losing someone dear, this movie will inspire. Our psyche, often in partnership with our dreams, can work through some regret, pain, loss, guilt and loneliness by gifting us very real visions in which we touch or hug that loved one, possibly even sharing meaningful words with them. In 2006 my sister died in a fire. On and off, for a few years, I experienced the sound of her calling my name in the night shortly after I fell asleep. This happened several times, waking me, bringing me to actually look for her. In fact, many years before that, I had the opportunity to be with and hold my infant daughter, who died of SIDS when she was 5 months. I held her preciousness in my arms and played with her several times over a matter of years. This always seemed to occur in the twilight of my sleep. At first, I experienced the loss of her, magnified when I awoke, knowing it was a dream; after a couple of years, I unexpectedly became grateful for the privilege to spend that time with her. Since my loss, I have talked with so many people who have experienced similar incidents. I can almost imagine these phenomena taking themselves just a step further. Can't you?

The enigmatic Ciaran Hinds has held my attention since I first noticed him in Jane Austen's "Persuasion". He seemed an unlikely, oafish sort for the part. I was wrong. The man, as I have witnessed since, is a great character actor and quite a strong, yet vulnerable, lead.

The music was beautiful and apropos, the subject matter intriguing, the acting well done and as a note of interest, the writer, Billy Roche, was the host of the literary event. While he was just short of invisible, he managed to create some comic relief. This was an eccentrically mysterious movie you will either love or not. It IS definitely worth the time to give it a try.

This chilling and thoughtful thriller from top Irish playwright McPherson exemplifies what movie makers who've earned their chops on the stage can bring to the big screen. The characters are three-dimensional; sharp, efficient dialog defines the relationships and moves the plot forward; life in a recently bereaved family, a small Irish town, and a literary festival is acutely observed.

The Eclipse maintains a spooky tension throughout and in a few instances will have you jumping out of your skin. (One minor criticism: Loud incidental music is constantly deployed to manipulate viewers, a perennial flaw of many mystery and horror films.) However, this is not a traditional ghost story but a psychological drama filtered through the perspective of the widowed father masterfully portrayed by Ciaran Hinds. It's probably not too much of a stretch to compare The Eclipse to In Bruges, the debut film of Martin McDonagh, another acclaimed U.K. dramatist, in the way it exploits the conventions of genre even as it defies formula to tell a more original, gratifying story.

A bonus: The cathedral-dominated town of Cobh, Cork County, provides a stunningly picturesque backdrop to The Eclipse, while adding to the overall isolated, claustrophobic atmosphere.

I saw a sneak preview of The Eclipse in Boston and loved it, as did the enthusiastic audience judging by their laughter, gasps of surprise and final, sustained, applause.

The cast were excellent and the ensemble playing was uniformly real. Ciaran Hinds (There Will be Blood, Munich and Miami Vice) was at his best and I understood why he deserved the Best Actor award he won at the last Tribeca Film Festival.

Aidan Quinn (Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, Songcatcher and Empire Falls) was brilliantly playing against type and succeeded in being funny, vain and creepy at the same time. Aidan won the Best supporting Actor at the IFTAs this year.

Iben Hjejle, who was in Defiance,is beautiful and very striking; a welcome fresh face to English Cinema. She more than holds her own among seasoned professionals. I look forward to seeing her films.

The excellent script, by Conor and Billy Roche, took the best screenplay award at the IFTAs.

The Film opens very soon and I urge everyone to see it.

I recently saw this at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival. The story is loosely based on a short story by Billy Roche from his short story collection 'Tales from Rainwater Pond' and adapted for the screen by playwright/writer/director Conor McPherson. Set in Cobh County, Ireland, they are holding an annual literary festival and widowed father of two, Michael Far (Ciarán Hines) as a volunteer, has been assigned to drive several prominent novelists coming to the festival including reluctant attendee, supernatural novelist Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle) and an even more reluctant attendee in Nicholas Holden (Aiden Quinn). The married Holden and the single Morelle have had a romantic affair in the past. Holden and Far start off on the wrong foot while Morelle has an attraction to Far. Far's father-in-law is dying and Far has been seeing ghosts of those who are dead and those who are not yet dead. Nicely photographed by Ivan Reynolds there are a lot of interesting elements going on here but the story never seems to find itself on film. There are dramatic moments and some light subtle comedy but also some classic horror movie devices that seem out of place with the mood of the film. It almost ventures into being a psychological thriller and then pulls back. Quinn is a great actor but he's too over the top in this role. Hinds and Hjejle are in turn great but there is little on screen chemistry between them. There are many lose ends here that leave the audience scratching their heads and I don't think this film ever really finds its audience. I would give this a 6.0 out of 10.

A man is trying to hold his family together. He has suffered great loss. He is truly trying to get a handle on life but is plagued by ghosts. Whether they are real or not is not the issue. It ultimately doesn't matter. What we have here is a budding relationship with a fragile writer who begins to see him for the gentle soul that he is. While the writer's workshop he is assisting with goes on, he tries to keep his feet on the ground, despite his pain. He is accosted by a pretentious ass of a writer, greatly admired by the public, but incapable of an original idea. His audience are young, romance oriented women. The man turns to the young woman for aide in his struggles, but has no confidence in himself and sees himself as an intruder, taking advantage of her vulnerability. This is a quiet movie with bittersweet results. The children, especially, are multi-dimensional in their own struggles with mortality.