Nora

I've read the biography on which this movie is based, and found that the screen adaptation hasn't embellished the true story (unlike most biopics) very much. "Nora" covers the Joyces courtship in Dublin, immigration, and their years in Trieste until 1914 when "Dubliners" was finally published. McGregor may not be perfectly cast - he's heavier, and not much of a tenor - Joyce, on the other hand, was so renowned for his singing that he briefly contemplated making a career out of it. Ewan's very earnest in his attempt, though, he gets an A for effort. Susan Lynch makes a great Nora, no complaints there.

Some of the chronology is played around with - the Prezioso episode happened after James and Nora's last mutual visit to Galway, not before. Two of Joyce's sisters are conflated into one, and the family's stint in Rome is omitted. Some episodes are invented for the sake of exposition, such as the run-in with the cattle in Dublin. Those are minor quibbles. The film got many details right - not the least of which was how elegantly the couple always tried to dress despite their relative lack of funds. Trieste hasn't changed much since early 20th century, so we also get to see some nice location shots - and a few in Dublin.

I was a bit disappointed that the film ended at an early cutoff point, after James and Nora's first decade together. Ideally, it should have been a miniseries a la "John Adams", and covered their fame in Paris, Nora and the kids caught in a Civil War crossfire during their last trip to Ireland, Joyce's eye troubles, Lucia's illness, etc. As is, it shows only the beginning of an almost 40-year relationship.

I've read some of the comments pro and con already made on this movie and am glad some viewers liked it. I thought it very fine indeed, but agree that some prior knowledge of James Joyce, his life and work, is helpful. Joyce's writing is not a bore, as some of the comments suggest. The story "The Dead," from Joyce's collection "Dubliners," is one of the great short stories in English literature. It is referrd to several times in this film. (Incidentally, "The Dead" has been made into a film also.) The time of the film "Nora", when Joyce was trying to find a publisher for "Dubliners", was well before the writing of his great work, "Ulysses". It was a time when Joyce and Nora Barnacle had a stormy relationship, but nevertheless were deeply in love and had a lusty relationship with each other. This is well depicted in the movie, beginning with their first date, when Nora surprises and delights Joyce with her bold advances. Ewan McGregor and Susan Lynch play these scenes with high professional skill, helping us to really understand the delight these two people had in a physical relationship. Their love is an up and down affair but endures. McGregor is a fine actor who always give 100% in whatever his role may be and in "Nora" he does not disappoint. I was struck by the way he squinted occasionally, just as Joyce must have done with his terrible eyesight, which even in these early years had begun to deteriorate badly. Susan Lynch is new to me and very convincing as the servant girl from the Irish countryside who kept up to the challenges of life with a great intellectual. One objection: I viewed this film on DVD and was unhappy that there are no captions for the hard of hearing--or for those who have trouble with Irish brogues!! There were a couple of the Trieste scenes where Italian conversation did have English language captions. A great relief! But is it really too great an expense for DVD producers to routinely include the caption option?

I don`t know much about James Joyce, but I loved this movie. I don`t know if it was because I am a huge Ewan Mcgregor fan or what. I loved the way Nora was totally in love with James. I loved the way Ewan portrayed his insecreties. I loved how that in the end they realise that love can over come most obstecals(A quote from another Mcgregor film)If you will watch this movie as a love story and not analize every single thing ,you will love it to.

Writer's lives are always a difficult subject for the screen, and even with the wealth of biographical and autobiographical material about James Joyce, he remains no exception. This movie, concentrating on the early part of his relationship with the humorously-monikered Nora barnacle makes a reasonable enough attempt to bring cinematic life to this complex and enigmatic figure.

Ewan McGregor, in the role of Joyce is sometimes a bit too young and sexy to convey his subjects brooding, promethean intensity, but he's certainly more convincing than Bosco Hogan in Joseph Strick's Portrait of an artist. The real star of the film is Susan Lynch, whose earthy sexuality convinces us that she could develop into the Molly Bloom of Ulysses. There's also good support from the actor playing Joyce's more level-headed brother and soi-disant "keeper", Stanislaus.

The movie is often affected by the exaggerated Irishness that seems to blight every movie set in the island, but it doesn't get in the way of the film's verisimilitude too much, with one exception. When Joyce's brother takes his book to an Irish publisher, he is told that "there's something dirty going on" in "The Dead" and this is presented as a uniquely Irish reaction, though in reality Joyce had the same reaction everywhere.

The film is also punctuated by subtle allusions to Joyces work that literati will enjoy picking up, but won't alienate those poor hordes of non-Joyceans too much. At the risk of sounding like a swotty pedant, there's a lot of profane language in the movie, which Joyce maintained he never used in speech, though it serves, if anything to increase the characters' believability.

Ewan McGregor, at almost 30, is playing a 22 year old James Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) from the moment Joyce meets Nora in Dublin, his future companion and later in life wife and mother of his 2 children. The movie depicts only the first 5-7 years of their tumultuous, tempestuous, sexually charged, possessive and jealousy filled relationship. It is the time when Joyce was struggling to get his novel 'Dubliners' printed which eventually did happen in 1914. It is the story of the young couple's self-imposed exile to the continent: to Trieste, today in Italy. The dramatisation is influenced by Joyce's short story 'The Dead' which is a novelette about a married couple. A passionate costume drama, but at times quite melancholic which is underlined by the dim/sepia cinematography.

Not many literary references of his published work however insight into the lovers erotic correspondence, the epistolary 'love-making' they had when ever they were separated. I thought that was extremely stimulating! Therefore, I decided to read Joyce's love-letters-to- Nora, rather than re-trying for the Xth time 'Ulysses' which I somehow never manage to finish.

Ewan McGregor is sincerely a brilliant actor, and as a Scotsman he pretty much fooled me with his strong Irish accent, but then again, there were moments, I would have loved to have English subtitles for my own untrained ears.

Historically accurate, biographically a bit amputated, but that only hardcore Joyce's fans will notice.

Verbally and visually the movie is sexually explicit, so for me it's 18+.

This is a movie for anyone who read Joyce or is into emotionally charged period dramas. —