The Story of a Father’s Love That Changed a Nation.
2002-09-30
N/A
92 min
Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment, and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children—Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice—make it clear to the authorities this is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages.
I recently watched this after first seeing it maybe ten years ago. It wasn’t quite as good as I remembered. I mean, I like it okay, but without Pierce Brosnan in it, I am not sure I would have stayed through it.
It is a harmless enough story, based on fact, about an Irishman who likes his drink (bordering on a stereotype maybe, says this Irish reviewer who rarely drinks) and whose wife gets fed up with her life when he loses his job. She takes off and, unlike what usually happens here in the good old USA, she leaves the kids behind, the children’s grandmother is so unimpressed with him she turns him in to the Society for the protection of children, who promptly take his children away. Again, in this country grandma probably would have tried for custody herself.
Irish law says that if the mother isn’t dead, he needs her permission to get the children back. You can guess the rest.
It is a tad sentimental and weirdly religious, highlighting both a mean nun but also showing a daughter absorbing the nun’s teachings which helps their case. But Julianna Marguiles is also very good, so turn a blind eye to the soppy story and Its predictability, and let the fine acting roll over you.
