Shadows on the Wall | Four Letters of Love

Four Letters of Love

dir Polly Steele
scr Niall Williams
prd Martina Niland, Douglas Cummins, Debbie Gray
with Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter, Gabriel Byrne, Fionn O'Shea, Ann Skelly, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Donal Finn, Pat Shortt, Imelda May, Olwen Fouere, Mary O'Driscoll, Michelle Lucy
release US 25.Apr.25,
UK 18.Jul.25
24/Ireland 1h50

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Author Niall Williams adapts his novel as a sweeping Irish drama with complex characters in four intertwined narrative strands. Directed by Polly Steele with an artistic eye for expansive landscapes and period settings, the film feels soft and strongly emotive as people take epic journeys that are both internal and external. Things occasionally get overwrought along the way, but fans of big romantic tales will love it.

In 1971 Dublin, William (Brosnan) feels called to leave work as a civil servant and become a painter, surprising his wife Bette (May) and their teen son Nicholas (O'Shea). And their lives began to fall apart. Meanwhile on a western island, poet Muiris (Byrne) and his wife Margaret (Bonham Carter) send their teen daughter Isabel (Skelly) to boarding school, where she rebels against the nuns' rules, escaping with cool local boy Peader (Walsh-Peelo). The two families' paths begin to cross when William heads west to paint, leading to a charged meeting between Isabel and Nicholas.

Thoughtfully narrated by Nicholas, the story is infused with his frustration that his father can't just be like everybody else. But observing him helps Nicholas realise that he wants to be a writer. As Nicholas grapples with his prickly affection for his father, Isabel revels in her romance with Peader. Gurgling through everything is the intriguing contrast between William recklessly following God's will while Muiris rages at God for the fragile condition of teen son Sean (Finn).

With such a powerhouse ensemble, the characters come to life in ways that transcend the sunshiny warmth of the production design. Each actor reveals layers of humour and emotion, with particularly nuanced turns from O'Shea and Skelly in the focal roles as young people finding their way through the realities of their lives, even as the plot pushes them in various pointed directions. Brosnan, Bonham Carter and Byrne skilfully add textures to each scene, while Walsh-Peelo and Finn find offhanded, powerful moments of their own.

Even with the gently sentimental tone, augmented by Anne Nikitin's surging choral score, the narrative takes some dark turns, putting these people through the wringer. It's a recognition that fate, or divine providence, has other demands on us. There's also a yearning cry for the purity of artistic expression in a world that only values earning money. So even if the final act feels somewhat belaboured, it's an achingly beautiful exploration of the nature of storytelling itself.

themes, language 14.Jul.25

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