Dancing at Lughnasa (1998)

I don't remember the last time I saw a Meryl Streep movie, and I don't think I'll ever want to again. She is cast as the oldest of five sisters who live with a kid in dreary Irish pre-war countryside, where they bicker and waste everyone's time with a whole load of crap. That Streep looks more like everyone's mother didn't seem to bother anyone making this film. Gambon is completely wasted as their senile uncle. The Spanish Civil War leftist crap is pathetic. And so on. That this miserable story was a hit as a play is hard to believe; what kind of audiences turn this kind of garbage into a hit? Don't they have anything better to do? Don't they have a life? Streep yet again does a stupid accent which has become something of an unintentional running gag of her drama-laden pitiful career.

A misfiring film. It has a truly exceptional cast and it is a great disappointment that it can't pack the punch that it promises.My biggest gripe is that we're implicitly promised a big dance set-piece which never materialises. Obviously there is a mitigating dance sequence (which, like all sequences, is well played). The problem is that the family unit needs a sequence where they come, corporately, up against the outside. Whilst the familial tensions, aspirations and fears are played out in a string of scenes revolving around the cottage, the film needs a formal tipping point more critical than the drip-effect of their failing employment.Meryl Streep has been, arguably, the finest female actor in the world for the past decade and it is a great credit to both her and her co-stars that she doesn't overbalance the ensemble. Despite their absorbing performances it doesn't work though - I'd say a fault of writers Brian Friel and Frank McGuiness. 4/10

OK, we should all know by now that Meryl Streep is one of the few Americans who can do a believable accent. So, she makes use of that ability here as a woman in 1930s Ireland. She and her sisters spend their days making the most of life.Some of us may think that there are a few too many stories about Irish people making the most of life. Maybe so, but really, who doesn't like making the most of life? And after all the terrible things that have happened to the Irish, do we really wish to slam them like that? So anyway, "Dancing at Lughnasa" isn't any kind of great movie, but worth seeing, if only once. Also starring Rhys Ifans (who later starred in "Little Nicky", "The Shipping News" and "Human Nature").

This is a pretty film visually, and some of the acting was good. Although I have not seen the play on which it was based, it seemed to me that this would be better as a play than a film. My favorite films are those that make me think, or evoke strong emotions. This one did neither. It did have a nice aesthetic content, visually. And, Meryl Streep gave one of her usual masterful performances. But, I didn't care about any of the characters, except the little boy. The film just left me cold, and it didn't seem memorable.