Tara Road

Andie MacDowell played an American wife, Marilyn Vine, and Olivia Williams played Ria, the Irish wife and mother. Marilyn loses her son tragically on his fifteenth birthday. Her marriage falls apart as well. By chance, Ria and Marilyn connect by telephone and decide to swap houses in Connecticut and Ireland. Marilyn goes to Ireland and tries to heal her devastating loss. Ria goes to Connecticut in America to escape her husband's infidelity with her best friend. I enjoy the supporting cast especially Ruby Wax OBE as Carlotta; Stephen Rea and Brenda Fricker. It is the kind of film made for Lifetime and Hallmark channel. If you enjoyed the novel, you will enjoy the movie adaptation.

Given that I have read the book (at least once) and loved it, I felt that this made the transition to the Big Screen fairly painlessly, after all it was a Big Book and time is limited. I went with someone who had not it, and we both enjoyed the film. I didn't find the acting hammy nor the shortcuts overly intrusive. A six-part drama would have covered all points better obviously but this movie told the tale adequately, the characters were all well-drawn and the mood of the book translated well onto the screen. I loved that we could get the ambiance of each home quickly and the circle of friends that each woman had. The kids were great - my only criticism would perhaps be that Danny was not quite smooth enough; it was hard to fall for his legendary charm.

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)".

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.

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!