Falling for a Dancer

I saw about forty minutes of this film whilst channel-flicking and kept watching because it was so unutterably dreadful. All things Irish got a good flogging; everyone seemed to be called Danny or Seamus and people carried sheep around. I ask you.

Good to rent for a laugh if you want to bore someone on a date.

Falling for a Dancer is a story that transcends time and place. Set in rural Ireland during the depression, it depicts a young woman pregnant and forced into a loveless marriage of a man who needed a mother for his brood.Hard work and many pitfalls,including widowhood, she is loved from afar by her neighbour, a caring decent man. Mossie has incredible passion for Beth, he is longing to be noticed by her, loves her children and behaves like a devoted neighbour.....attentive, helpful and practical, yet she is oblivious I loved the way church parish life was the centre of the community in the story. When Beth's daughter became pregnant in much the same way the mother did, Beth goes first to the local priest to tell him the news, not for help but to say they intend to manage and continue church attendance. Beth reacted to the daughter's news by saying " we will be legends in our own lifetime " How refreshing for a 15 year old mother - to - be, to be told to walk tall coimng out of church. Falling for a Dancer had just the right amount of realism, regret and romance. It is a rich story well told. Great ending too Congratulations to all the cast Highly recommended Catherine Cromwell. New Zealand

This film is beautiful, interesting and very moving.

The story of a young girl that gets pregnant by an actor in a traveling theatrical company and is married off to a 40 year old widower to avoid scandal.

The 3 hours grant enough time for the story to unfold itself without hurry. Characters have time to be developed properly. The landscape has time to grow on you.

All the actors really deserve praise for this. Especially Liam Cunningham and Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh. Eleanor Methven should be mentioned too.

Although this film is now sold as a Colin Farrell vehicle, his role is really very small - although certainly one of his best.

I give this movie 10/10 and really cannot understand why it is that underrated here.

Loved this movie! This adaptation of the Deirdre Purcell novel runs approximately 190 minutes and is worth every second. In the beginning of the film, Elizabeth Sullivan has her first romance with an actor in a traveling show and finds herself pregnant and the actor long gone. Her parents, wanting to avoid embarrassment, consult their priest for advise and he comes up with a recently widowed older man with young children who needs a wife. Left with few options, Elizabeth, played beautifully by newcomer Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh, marries this stranger and endures a life much harder than the privileged one she left. Her husband, Neeley, treats her like property he's paranoid of losing, but not especially cherished property.

Watching from the hill above is Neeley's cousin, Mossie Sheenan (Liam Cunningham). Neeley inherited his farm from Mossie's father, who died when Mossie was very young and probably before he could change his will to leave the place to his son - a situation that has caused bad blood between them. This has Elizabeth misinterpreting just about everything Mossie does as being motivated by a desire to either cause Neeley trouble or to regain his land.

There isn't much more we can tell without giving away too much, but this movie has everything you can hope for . . .a great story, beautiful scenery, haunting music, and WONDERFUL ACTING. Liam Cunningham gives a powerful performance as the brooding Mossie Sheehan. As a man of few words in most of the movie, he had to tell the viewer most of what his character is feeling through his eyes, facial expressions, and body language, and actors who can handle such a task this well are rare and deserving of praise.

This is a superb mini-series based on the book by Deirdre Purcell. Based in rural Ireland in the 1920s/ 30s, it explores many of the strong cultural influences at the time regarding the family, the importance of land, taboos about extramarital pregnancy etc. It depicts the difficulty faced by Lizzie (Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh) in turning from a young urban woman to the wife of an older rural man (Dermot Crowley), her struggle with her sexuality and ultimately her developing relationship with Mossie (Liam Cunningham).

Excellent performances are particularly given by Liam Cunningham and Elisabeth Dermot Walsh, and both of these are names to watch for in the future.