Main Cast: Meryl Streep, Michael Gambon, Catherine McCormack, Kathy Burke, Sophie Thompson, Brid Brennan
Release Year: 1998
Country: US/UK/IE
Run Time: 92 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Irish director Pat O'Connor helmed this adaptation of Brian Friel's 1990 play which won three Tony awards in addition to UK Olivier and Evening Standard awards. Friel's portrait of five Irish sisters takes place in 1936 on a Donegal farm. The unmarried Mundy sisters are barely surviving. Middle-aged schoolteacher Kate (Meryl Streep) is the eldest, overseeing pretty Christina (Catherine McCormack), lively Maggie (Kathy Burke, re-creating her Tony award-winning role), reliable Agnes (Brid Brennan), and Rose (Sophie Thompson), who has a secret affair with a married man. Christina is the mother of eight-year-old Michael (Darrell Johnston), beneficiary of much attention from his four aunts. The story of a turning-point summer is told in retrospect by the adult Michael and begins when the sisters welcome their older brother Jack (Michael Gambon) as he returns home from missionary work in Africa. Michael's father Gerry Evans (Rhys Ifans) makes an unexpected arrival, winning back both Michael and mom before joining the International Brigade to fight Franco in Spain. Kate loses her teaching position, and the sister's income from their handwoven clothing is threatened by the announced opening of a woolens factory. Shown at 1998 fests (Venice, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Rhys Ifans - Gerry Evans; Darrell Johnston - Michael Mundy; Lorcan Cranitch - Danny Bradley; Peter Gowen - Austin Morgan; Dawn Bradfield - Sophie McLoughlin; Marie Mullen - Vera McLoughlin; John Kavanagh - Father Carlin; Kate O'Toole - Chemist
Credit
Connor Devlin - Art Director, Clodagh Conroy - Art Director, Terry Pritchard - Supervising Art Director, Mary Selway - Casting, Joan Bergin - Costume Designer, Robert Quinn - First Assistant Director, Pat O'Connor - Director, Humphrey Dixon - Editor, Jane Barclay - Executive Producer, Gerrit Folsom - Line Producer, Bill Whelan - Composer (Music Score), Mark Geraghty - Production Designer, Kenneth MacMillan - Cinematographer, Noel Pearson - Producer, Kieran Horgan - Sound/Sound Designer, Frank McGuinness - Screenwriter, Brian Friel - Play Author
Although the film received average reviews (67% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes), most critics praised the performance of the entire cast. Janet Maslin, critic of the New York Times said that "Meryl Streep has made many a grand acting gesture in her career, but the way she simply peers out a window in Dancing at Lughnasa ranks with the best. Everything the viewer need know about Kate Mundy, the woman she plays here, is written on that prim, lonely face and its flabbergasted gaze."[1]Peter Travis of Rolling Stone magazine wrote that "a luminous cast reveals long-buried feelings. Meryl Streep finds the expansive soul behind prim schoolteacher Kate. And she is matched by Kathy Burke's bawdy Maggie, Brid Brennan's secretive Agnes, Sophie Thompson's slow-witted Rose and Catherine McCormack's bold Christina, who never married the father of her son."[2]
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