Dancing At Lughnasa
In a place you've never heard of, meet five sisters you'll never forget.
Rural Ireland, 1936. It's a pivotal time for the five unmarried Mundy sisters. Europe is on the brink of war, their small village is on the verge of incredible change and the sisters have troubles of their own. The head of the household is the imperious, eldest sister Kate (Meryl Streep), barely holding the family together with income from her teaching job. Her sisters, saintly caretaker Agnes (Brid Brennan); the simple-minded Rose (Sophie Thompson); earth Maggie (Kathy Burke) and the romantic Christina (Catherine McCormack) all do piecework and odd jobs to support themselves and Christina's beloved illegitimate son Michael. Into their lives come two men who threaten to disrupt this delicate family union: Michael's errant father Gerry (Rhys Ifans) and the sisters' brother (Michael Gambon), a mentally unbalanced priest returning from decades of missionary work in remote Africa. Despite their hardships, the sisters are able to embrace life and all its complexities and dance with joy in their hearts. DANCING AT LUGHNASA is a poignant drama featuring brilliant ensemble acting, gorgeous photography and music by Grammy Award-winning composer Bill Whelan.
Member Reviews
Jumbled - QuartInSession
As another reviewer noted, there are lots of little subplots here that never quite get off the ground.
In effect, the movie seems 'pointless' until the very end when we learn exactly why young Michael sees this story as pivotal in the lives of his family members. This means that through almost the entire film, one wonders "Where is this going?" and not in a good way.
Michael Gambon is a great actor, and wasn't given really anything to work with here. I did enjoy the gorgeous Irish scenery, as I always do in films set there.a sad and fine, nuanced film - billie
A delicate and nuanced film of Brian Friel's fine play, showing changing Ireland in the 1930's through the stories of a family of sisters who live in a traditional cottage in the country. They live in an Ireland still partly pagan, partly constricted by the Church. As a result, the sisters have to live with the shame of a disgraced brother returning from missionary work in Africa, having "gone native" and been virtually dismissed by the church. They must also live with the shame of an illegitimate child, for one of the sisters has a relationship with a charming wastrel from Wales who has another family back home. He pops into their lives, befriending the brother, offering a taste of fatherhood to the boy, tempting more than one sister, and announcing he's on his way to Spain to fight in the civil war there. The youngest sister is "simple", "touched by God" as they say, and has a fling with a married man whose wife and three children have abandoned him. So many things to shame the family, headed by Meryl Streep as the only wage earner. She is a school teacher who loses her job due to the unwanted celebrity of the family in this strict Catholic neighbourhood. Two of the other sisters make a little money making gloves, but their work is overtaken by modernization in the form of a factory. The sisters try to maintain their sense of dignity and positivity in the face of all this. Most of them want to go to the annual pagan fire festival of light, of the god Lugh, at Lughnasa, but the eldest sister refuses to allow such nonsense. Still, the simple sister ends up there, frightened out of her wits, and rescued by Jack, who confuses the Lugh fires with African ritual. The differences are quite minor. The sisters do manage to dance, though, a wild dance of life, to the tune of an iffy radio, a mad, soul-affirming dance around and outside of their croft. It is the apex of their summer, of their love, of their family, which soon falls apart.Dancing never gets off the ground - kepmen
Assemble a cast of dependable British character actors, toss in Meryl Streep and you'd think you had a winner on your hands. Not so much.
Streep does a good job of leading this band of lonely Irish sisters in Pat O’Conner’s "Dancing at Lughnasa" as they stumble about their everyday lives in 1930's Ireland. The film is narrated by Michael the son of the youngest of these sisters, who tells us in bittersweet recollection that it is a pivotal time in the family's relationship. If this disembodied voice didn't keep popping up to tell me so, I don't know that I'd believe it. If this is pivotal then the family must have been in a coma before.
There's a bevy of stock characters to sift through. The uptight school marm, the dimwitted sister, the mother of an illegitimate son. But once the film sets its characters up it doesn't seem to know what to do with them. The arrival of the family's lone brother, Father Jack (Michael Gambon), sets off a clash between the family's Catholic upbringing and the pagan rituals of Ireland's past, but as another review here has pointed out; the storyline is never followed through to its conclusion. In another half hearted subplot, Rhys Ifans shows up as young Michael's father for a little lighthearted melodrama but the story never really gets off the ground.
Michael Gambon is utterly misused as Father Jack, a man struggling against his experiences as a missionary in Africa. Instead of letting Gambon give us something with a little meat on its bones, the film is content to have Father Jack pop up and act "crazy" to the tune of whatever emotional chord needs to be played.
While each of these characters has a story worth telling, the film manages to stop short of telling any of them. Bottom line: good acting can't save this dance from running out of steam.
Member Reviews
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Jumbled - QuartInSession
As another reviewer noted, there are lots of little subplots here that never quite get off the ground.
In effect, the movie seems 'pointless' until the very end when we learn exactly why young Michael sees this story as pivotal in the lives of his family ...a sad and fine, nuanced film - billie
A delicate and nuanced film of Brian Friel's fine play, showing changing Ireland in the 1930's through the stories of a family of sisters who live in a traditional cottage in the country. They live in an Ireland still partly pagan, partly constricted by the ...Dancing never gets off the ground - kepmen
Assemble a cast of dependable British character actors, toss in Meryl Streep and you'd think you had a winner on your hands. Not so much.
Streep does a good job of leading this band of lonely Irish sisters in Pat O’Conner’s "Dancing at Lughnasa" ...