Tara Breathnach and Muireann Bird play Anglo-Irish sisters May and Tilly Collingwood in this handsome-looking but overwrought drama set during the Irish War of Independence. They struggle to keep their big house going as Black and Tans and the IRA clash in bloody showdowns in the surrounding countryside.
The drawn and spinster-like before her time May is watchful and intense, while younger sister Tilly is innocent and dreamy. It’s a dynamic that works well and their affection for each other is clear until May discovers a wounded British officer taking refuge in one of their outhouses.
For reasons that are never fully explained other than basic humanity in an era of base savagery, and at great personal risk they take him in and nurse him back to health. Inevitably, the frigid May and the girl-like Tilly soon develop feelings for the handsome captain and tension rules the formerly serene household.
Based on the novel by PJ Curtis and shot in Offaly during a heat wave on a tiny budget, this is certainly a logistical triumph but A Nightingale Falling sags under the crushing weight of its own sense of importance.
An intrusive orchestral soundtrack and stilted dialogue of old world sophistry sacrifice subtly and drama for shrillness and perhaps the camera is over busy at times.
Husband and wife directing team of Garret Daly and Martina McGlynn have done very well to make their debut feature with little cash and less than perfect conditions but perhaps this is not quite the terrible beauty they may have been aiming for.
Alan Corr
