Overlooking a tiny Irish village is "Widows' Peak," an area inhabited by a tight-knit group of well-off widows. The doyen of the group is the venerable Mrs. Doyle-Counihan (Joan Plowright), who keeps the ladies in her circle on a short leash. An odd member of their society is Miss O'Hare (Mia Farrow), the only unmarried lady to be accepted as an intimate. When a flamboyant, young American woman (Natasha Richardson) moves in, she shakes up the town by quickly stealing the heart of Mrs. Doyle-Counihan's son and for no apparent reason, making a enemy of Miss O'Hare.
Billed as a comedy/mystery/thriller, this very odd movie falls short on all counts. While it does paint a charming picture of Irish village life in the 1920s, both the plot and the local dialect are nearly incomprehensible and the ending is too much of a twist. Plowright (widow of Laurence Olivier) is wonderful as the foolish grande dame who thinks she knows everything. Farrow, however, is woefully miscast. Her Irish accent comes and goes and she looks like a spaced-out twenty-something, which hurts the ending. Richardson is simply annoying as the pushy and mysterious American. None of the characters, in fact, are likable in the least and I didn't care about any of them - with the exception of the local dentist, played to comic perfection by Jim Broadbent.
This is a confusing, tedious, and disappointing movie that should have been so much better, considering the cast.
Billed as a comedy/mystery/thriller, this very odd movie falls short on all counts. While it does paint a charming picture of Irish village life in the 1920s, both the plot and the local dialect are nearly incomprehensible and the ending is too much of a twist. Plowright (widow of Laurence Olivier) is wonderful as the foolish grande dame who thinks she knows everything. Farrow, however, is woefully miscast. Her Irish accent comes and goes and she looks like a spaced-out twenty-something, which hurts the ending. Richardson is simply annoying as the pushy and mysterious American. None of the characters, in fact, are likable in the least and I didn't care about any of them - with the exception of the local dentist, played to comic perfection by Jim Broadbent.
This is a confusing, tedious, and disappointing movie that should have been so much better, considering the cast.