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'Dancing at Lughnasa'
By Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 25, 1998
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Meryl Streep in slow "Dancing at Lughnasa."
(Sony Pictures Classics)
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Director:
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Pat O'Connor
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Cast:
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Meryl Streep;
Michael Gambon;
Catherine McCormack;
Kathy Burke;
Sophie Thompson |
Running Time:
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1 hour, 34 minutes
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Contains little that is objectionable other than vague discussions of infidelity and premarital sex
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Ah, those inscrutable Irish! Renowned for their artistic alchemy – the ability to turn suffering and depression into poetry – they're also a people for whom "dancing" often means to jig about with the upper body held stiff as a board and arms pinned tightly to the sides.
In fairness, that's not the way they hoof it in "Dancing at Lughnasa," adapted from Brian Friel's play by screenwriter Frank McGuinness and directed by Pat O'Connor. Although there's more talking about dancing than actual dancing, the bit that is done (during a pagan harvest festival that honors the god Lugh) is actually fairly festive and does not resemble "Riverdance" in the least.
The dancers in question are the five Mundy sisters, Kate (foreign-accent queen Meryl Streep), Maggie (Kathy Burke), Rose (Sophie Thompson), Christina (Catherine McCormack) and Agnes (Brid Brennan). Never married, they sit around in their Donegal cottage and snap at each other about cigarettes and survival in the difficult economy of 1936. The male gender is represented by senescent brother Jack (Michael Gambon), a Catholic missionary priest recently returned from Africa, Christina's illegitimate son Michael (Darrell Johnston) and his wandering father Gerry (Rhys Ifans).
All the men want to be elsewhere, including little Michael, whose adult reminiscences frame the film in voice-over narration. As claustrophobic and talky as "Lughnasa" is, you can't really blame the boys, but the movie's stiffness is due as much to its roots in the theater as to its Irishness.
Although superbly acted, "Lughnasa" moves the equivalent of a dramatic inch with a glacier's pace. At the fuzzy conclusion Michael informs us that, "The family had changed forever."
It's never clear exactly how, but we must take his word for it.
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