An appealing story and nice enough acting. But absolutely could have been written by a Middle Schooler. All the self satisfying early 20th Century cliches and resulting answers to dilemmas, only whispered background dangers allude to the strife in the story, no really lasting consequences to anyone's decisions. Everyone mostly win and lives their mostly lives happily ever after. Altogether predictable and mawkish. Disappointing, exasperating pap. Generally satisfying musical score, lush cinematography, appealing costuming, faithful recreation of the farming life. However, the mystery is where money comes from to sustain the lives of the cast and how about the every day matters of the bodily functions of the characters. And how does one keep the persons and the bedding so nicely washed. Not a very realistic representation of the necessary strife within this sad tale.

I give it a 9 as it deserves a great rating. Nothing really deserves a 10. The cast were well chosen for their rolls so were all convincing, there was no musha begorra accents so the whole thing came across very real. If you are looking for drama on the big screen then this is a movie not to miss. The story has a number of twists in it but its still easy to follow. Watch out for the Directors, I don't think (hope) this will be their last feature film. I believe its won best film at two Film Festivals and had an second screening in Galway as the first one sold out. After seeing it on Thursday I can see why. This is not Spiderman but special effects are not needed when you have good solid actors such as Tara on the screen. A good story well told doesn't need special effects. Well done to all concerned.

There's nothing that I can point to as being at fault, but think it would've made a better TV adaptation than a full length feature. The setting and period were convincing, and one did get a sense of menace from the situation. The acting was fine. All in all though it just didn't really engage and take off. I never really reached the point of caring very much about the three central characters, and I can't say the acting was totally to blame. I feel the script could've been better, a lot more could've been made of the situation, it didn't lack drama, but didn't really live up to the possibilities, and seemed obvious at times. Its not a bad film, but not a great one either, hence the score.

An appealing story and nice enough acting. But absolutely could have been written by a Middle Schooler. All the self satisfying early 20th Century cliches and resulting answers to dilemmas, only whispered background dangers allude to the strife in the story, no really lasting consequences to anyone's decisions. Everyone mostly win and lives their mostly lives happily ever after. Altogether predictable and mawkish. Disappointing, exasperating pap. Generally satisfying musical score, lush cinematography, appealing costuming, faithful recreation of the farming life. However, the mystery is where money comes from to sustain the lives of the cast and how about the every day matters of the bodily functions of the characters. And how does one keep the persons and the bedding so nicely washed. Not a very realistic representation of the necessary strife within this sad tale.