Unfortunately many Irish American movies about Ireland are tarnished by an overly sentimental and romantic view of Ireland. While the core of this fantastic little movie is a romance the Quinn brothers have taken a realistic and fresh look at some of the darker sides of small town Ireland in the 1930s - a side that to some degree still exists. The movie sets up perfectly the class hierarchies and prejudices that leap into action when two young people from very different class backgrounds begin to fall in love. The casting in this movie is particularly good and the smaller parts are taken by some very fine actors. Stephen Rea is magnificent as Father Quinn the visiting priest who conducts an inquisition into the sex lives of the villagers while Maria McDermottroe and Donal Donnelly are wonderful as the adoptive parents of one of the lovers. However the real gem is the performances by Aidan Quinn and Moya Farrelly who play the two young lovers at the centre of this movie. Quinn captures perfectly the closed in, nervous stance of a shy young Irish farmer while Farrelly is fresh and exuberant. There is fantastic chemistry between them and their scenes together are both touching and contain a fresh honesty about first love and love-making that is rarely captured on film.
Review of This Is My Father
