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Irish playwright Conor McPherson successfully transitions from stage to screen for his third cinematic go-round (after two less successful efforts). Woodworking instructor Michael Farr (
Munich's soulful Ciarán Hinds), who lost his wife two years before, volunteers as a chauffeur for Cobh Cove's annual literary festival. As the event begins, he sees the ghost of his father-in-law, Malachy (Jim Norton), who isn't dead, wandering through the townhouse he shares with his two children. Michael seeks advice from Lena Morelle (
The Boss of It All's delicately pretty Iben Hjejle), British author of
The Eclipse, a book about ghosts. She suspects Malachy might be close to death. Married American novelist Nicholas Holden (Aidan Quinn in feisty Norman Mailer mode), who had a fling with Lena the previous year, has also arrived in the Cork hamlet, hoping to rekindle the flame, except the divorced Lena finds herself drawn to the soft-spoken widower. If Michael shares her interest, he isn't quite ready to move on, though the combination of a persistent ghost and a desperate novelist pushes him in unexpected directions. As that trajectory suggests, McPherson's minor-key movie takes aim at the adult audience, and those accustomed to more sensationalistic fare may find it a little dull. The angular cinematography and minimal special effects produce some genuine chills, but psychology ultimately trumps the paranormal. In that sense, it serves as a welcome throwback to the sophisticated chillers of the 1960s, like
The Innocents and
The Haunting.
--Kathleen C. Fennessy
