Pat O'Connor's 1984 film, adapted from Bernard MacLaverty's novel, showcases the complex emotions surrounding love and loss in the context of Northern Ireland's Troubles. Helen Mirren's award-winning portrayal of Marcella, a widow married to a murdered police officer, highlights the unflinching reality of sectarian violence. The story delves into her relationship with Cal, a conflicted man complicit in her husband's death, and explores themes of compassion and melancholy as their bond deepens amid societal turmoil. This rerelease underscores the film's lasting cultural impact and character depth against the backdrop of a troubled era.
Mirren plays Marcella, a woman from a Catholic background, married across the sectarian divide to a reserve police officer murdered at his parents' farmhouse by an IRA man.
What leads up to the main event is an observant, bleak, sometimes mordantly funny and compassionate account of everyone's melancholy existence.
It has an unhurried, thoughtful and very human quality; Helen Mirren won the best actress award at Cannes for her performance here and in fact it is very well acted across the board.
Cal falls deeply in love with her. There can't be many movies about love in which the principals don't so much as kiss until an hour and a quarter into the running time.
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