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Jan 11, 2017Nursebob rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Pat O’Connor’s screen adaptation of Brian Friel’s Tony award-winning stage play recounting one boy’s magical summer in Donegal is undeniably Irish in its heady balance of acerbic wit, homespun warmth, and sense of melancholia which seems to underly everything. Gleaned mainly from a young nephew's memories, O’Connor’s gorgeously visual film frames its family drama in a bucolic setting of green hills and mountain lakes where prim Christianity vies with pagan bacchanals (the harvest feast of Lughnasa—pronounced LOO-na-sa—gives rise to drunken midnight revelries) and every heart seems to be tinged with one form of longing or another whether it’s one sister's ill-fated attraction for a married man, a dying priest's wistful stories of Africa, or the eldest sister's bitter suspicion that the best parts of life are now behind her. But throughout it all the Mundy women yearn to dance—albeit to music from a scratchy old wireless set—and stubbornly refuse to go gently. Anchored by Streep, yet never overshadowed, the supporting cast are superb as they present strong characters that somehow manage to meld into a greater whole without losing their distinct personalities. A simple story whose small moments of pain and abiding love make for captivating cinema.