Movies
Dancing at Lughnasa
Stodgy stage play (by Brian Friel) about five spinster sisters in County Donegal in the depressed Thirties, and their addled older brother fresh from missionary service in Uganda. There is a lot of talk about dancing, Africa, paganism in general, and about getting away. Some of them eventually do. (Get away, that is, as well as dance -- to a sickly staticky little parlor radio whose sound, at the crucial moment, blooms stereophonically to blanket the countryside.) Plopping it down in real surroundings only emphasizes the phoneyness. Some sensitive playing by Sophie Thompson and Brid Brennan in particular, and (of course) Meryl Streep, in a comfortable brogue, but that only emphasizes the phoneyness, too. Kathy Burke, Catherine McCormack, Michael Gambon; directed by Pat O'Connor. 1998.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: PG
