It's 1967 Ballygar, Ireland. Chrissie Ahearn (Laura Linney) returns to her home town for her estranged mother's funeral. Her mother left her a ticket to pilgrimage destination town of Lourdes, France. Lily Fox (Maggie Smith), Eileen Dunne (Kathy Bates), and Dolly Hennessy (Agnes O'Casey) are also on the trip. Lily blames Chrissie for the death of her son. Dolly brings her mute little boy. Eileen's husband Frank Dunne (Stephen Rea) is angry to be left alone with the kids.
This is a dark story done with a lighter touch. It's trying to make jokes when it really needs to hit the darkness harder. It needs to explain these people's relationships earlier without doing the shocking reveal of their shared trauma. It's great to have Maggie Smith at her age. I don't like Kathy Bates for this. The movie is obviously trying to show her as the ugly angry wife stuck with a family. I don't get how she was Chrissie's friend. Linney is well over a decade younger than Bates. So Chrissie was a twentysomething when she told her almost forty year old friend Eileen. It could happen, but it would be so much more compelling for them to be the same age. They would be school friends who walked down different paths. Quite frankly, I would drop Frank after they leave on the trip. This should about the girls and nothing else.
This is a dark story done with a lighter touch. It's trying to make jokes when it really needs to hit the darkness harder. It needs to explain these people's relationships earlier without doing the shocking reveal of their shared trauma. It's great to have Maggie Smith at her age. I don't like Kathy Bates for this. The movie is obviously trying to show her as the ugly angry wife stuck with a family. I don't get how she was Chrissie's friend. Linney is well over a decade younger than Bates. So Chrissie was a twentysomething when she told her almost forty year old friend Eileen. It could happen, but it would be so much more compelling for them to be the same age. They would be school friends who walked down different paths. Quite frankly, I would drop Frank after they leave on the trip. This should about the girls and nothing else.