Evelyn Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)December 20th, 2002
Evelyn
Rental with Snacks
Set in 1953, Evelyn is the true story of a family in struggle against The Powers That Be in Ireland. Viewed from 2002 and America in particular, where the separation of Church and State is (officially at least) deeply frowned upon, the obstacles encountered by Pierce Brosnan and his little brood are incomprehensible. His three children have been taken from him due to a medieval-seeming law from 1941, wherein a single parent (especially a father) loses custody of his children to the Catholic orphanages, with no actual hope of getting them back. A series of overlapping and insane laws prevent any hope of change. Evelyn was a witness in the court trial that changed Irish history, and therefore she is the linchpin of the outcome and earns the film title.
Pierce Brosnan plays Desmond Doyle as strong but emotional, disheveled but fabulous, determined but powerless. It's nice to see him acting in his native land and really getting to sink his chops into something; Hollywood is so excited to have such a debonair hunk at its fingertips he has to sneak to cable to get anything else to play. His dear little children suffer under the nuns and priests, especially Evelyn, and the law turns a blind eye. Doyle is frantic, desperate, and he tries everything. It's moving to see a parent so devoted; the number of children with living parents in the orphanage speaks to the difficulties Doyle is going to face.
Accustomed as we are to courtroom dramas with all the boring stuff excised in favor of drama, the Irish judicial system of this time seems impossible and horrifying; indeed it was for Doyle, and we feel his pain, if not his sense of futility. Doyle is supported by Stephen Rea, Julianna Margulies, Alan Bates and Aidan Quinn, but it is Brosnan's passionate determination that makes everything happen. Doyle's children are given no say, no credibility due to their age and "impressionable" natures, against the adamantium might of Mother Church.
Church and State. One can't help but be reminded of the current immunity from the law that the American Catholic Church (and some in other countries) seems to be enjoying with all the molestation and rape cases being made against them. Have any priests gone to jail? How is this organization managing to remain outside the law, even today? It is a chilling reminder of the power they hold, even in the supposedly more-evolved and more civil rights conscious present-day.
As with many scripts based on true-life events, it lopes and rambles and has trouble keeping a steady pace, and then finally skips along to its conclusion. It is moving and sweet (bordering perilously close to soppy on occasion) and leans on unnecessary tear-jerking a bit early in the film, but it is a nice story of a father's love defeating fantastic odds (oops - giveaway!) and an event which is more than worthy of commemoration. As a movie-going experience, it is really a Rental with snacks.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks.
[email protected]
Check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com
http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
http://www.mediamotions.com for 1999 releases
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
