The Eclipse (2009) User Reviews

An atypical blend of genres that ultimately satisfies.

[lewiskendell · 7/10 · 30 June 2010]

"Then she knew. She knew that she was seeing a ghost, and she realized for perhaps the first time in her life, that she too would die. That her husband would die. And that her children would die. She knew in that moment, that she was looking at reality."

The Eclipse is a tough movie to describe. It's an odd Irish mixture of a supernatural thriller and a family drama, that is very slow-paced. The entire movie occurs in a relatively short time frame, and not much appears to "happen", though it really does.

Ciaran Hinds stars as a father of two who's recently lost his wife, and is charged with attending to a supernatural fiction writer (Iben Hjejle) who has come to Ireland for a literary festival. He begins to have either dreams or visions of his dead father (who's actually still alive), as he slowly draws closer to the female writer.

That's hardly a serviceable summary, but this movie is difficult to summarize. As I said, it's slow-paced; but that suits the movie. I never found it dull or boring. I can't really think of anything to compare it to. It's a very adult drama, that deals with death and loneliness without being depressing or sappy. Don't watch it expecting a horror movie, or a typical romance, or...well, the best thing to do would be to not expect anything specific, at all. Watch The Eclipse with a completely open mind. Be assured, though, that it has a lot to offer. It's one of the more "genuine" movies that I've seen in quite a while. Maybe once you've watched it, you can describe it better than I can.

Smart and Spooky

[kiwisago · 7/10 · 22 January 2011]

Like many films with a little spookiness in them, the DVD cover and other promotional material tends to try to sell it as SCARY, when in fact there was only one moment I found actually unsettling to the point of scariness.

This was a very gentle film in many ways, humane, intelligent and thoughtful, with flawed characters who inspire sympathy as they muddle through various difficulties. The actors are wonderful. The contrast between the ordinariness of the lives portrayed and the otherworldiness of the scary bits made for an uneven overall tone, but one that worked well. Everything was thematically connected - the mystery of life and death, coping, romance, the promise of hope and the creeping shadow of despair... I enjoyed it very much.

Never finds its audience

[johno-21 · 6/10 · 28 January 2010]

I recently saw this at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival. The story is loosely based on a short story by Billy Roche from his short story collection 'Tales from Rainwater Pond' and adapted for the screen by playwright/writer/director Conor McPherson. Set in Cobh County, Ireland, they are holding an annual literary festival and widowed father of two, Michael Far (Ciarán Hines) as a volunteer, has been assigned to drive several prominent novelists coming to the festival including reluctant attendee, supernatural novelist Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle) and an even more reluctant attendee in Nicholas Holden (Aiden Quinn). The married Holden and the single Morelle have had a romantic affair in the past. Holden and Far start off on the wrong foot while Morelle has an attraction to Far. Far's father-in-law is dying and Far has been seeing ghosts of those who are dead and those who are not yet dead. Nicely photographed by Ivan Reynolds there are a lot of interesting elements going on here but the story never seems to find itself on film. There are dramatic moments and some light subtle comedy but also some classic horror movie devices that seem out of place with the mood of the film. It almost ventures into being a psychological thriller and then pulls back. Quinn is a great actor but he's too over the top in this role. Hinds and Hjejle are in turn great but there is little on screen chemistry between them. There are many lose ends here that leave the audience scratching their heads and I don't think this film ever really finds its audience. I would give this a 6.0 out of 10.

Simple, poignant, very real and very beautiful

[fkkemble · 22 October 2011]

There is a real magic in this film and I loved the pace and the charming simplicity. It's also unstintingly Irish and you feel that you are there in the thick of it all. I live in Canada but have been to Ireland twice and find the country to be full of intriguing paradoxes and ironies and quiet humour. You get a real feel for this in the film. I thought all three main actors were just brilliant especially Ciaran Hinds who played the part so naturally and so beautifully. I take my hat off to Aidan Quinn too who was a real sport and did an amazing job, Iben Hjejle was also great not to mention extremely attractive. In a film world constipated with so much doggerel, remakes and American action and teen movies, it makes a terrific change to see a movie that is refreshing and intelligent. The Irish, Australians and especially the British have a way with movie making that is so far and above the crap that comes from the US. Well done all who worked on The Eclipse, you should be proud.

Big subject, slight treatment

[girlocelot · 6/10 · 30 June 2010]

The Eclipse has lots of good things about it, but in the end, the pieces don't hold together. Part of the problem is the editing and writing. There are many long shots - beautiful - with the most peculiar music playing, a mixture of bad Benjamin Britten and Philip Glass, and it goes on and on, setting a vague, angsty, weird mood. The story is a wisp, and the writing, while good, doesn't fill the film. The interior sets as well as the gorgeous Irish country side are beautiful, but some scenes are so badly shot that you can hardly see what's going on.

I kept watching because - besides expecting a payoff - the acting and characters are appealing. Hinds is great - he holds a lot in, myriad emotions flicker across his face, he clearly has a large interior life. The female lead grew on me, although her character is odd and prickly. Quinn, fabulously good, plays a character who's just a plot device to get the others in the right places, but he's so vivid, full-realized, pathetic and despicable at the same time, that the plot should have served him better. When the three leads get together, the film changes, and it's charged, strong, unpredictable, real, surprising.

We care about the emotional subject - unresolved grief, the spiritually or psychologically open states we can find out selves in, and how to move on and in to our lives. But it's as if half the film got left on the editing floor - the half with more acting and less music. It's like there are holes in the movie, filled with music. I know there was more there, but we can't see it. Worth checking out anyway for the acting.

the best acting you'll ever see in a barely there plot

[RobLuvsTheMountains · 6/10 · 29 May 2019]

The acting in this movie is top notch and for that reason alone I stayed with this movie to the end. However, there are two main problems with this movie that made it a problem. One is that there isn't much plot. The other thing is the musical score. First, the plot (or lack thereof): The movie is described as a "supernatural thriller." This is not accurate. It is a drama about grief. There are several jump scares thrown in, but it's so tenuously tied to the plot that the movie would have been better without them. Now, the infernal musical score. Good heavens, the score is so irritating. It's so irritating that I'm commenting on it. I never comment on the musical scores of movies. The movie is littered with boy's choir music. Oh yes, of course, because there are cathedrals in the town. Good grief. I kept expecting for there to be a scene taking place IN one of the cathedrals b/c the score would lead one to believe that. But there aren't any scenes in any of the cathedrals. The other irritating thing about the score is the piano music that is employed during dramatic buildup. The same note is played over and over and over again. So annoying. The actors really are superb though. I would love to see them in some better material.

Laying Ghosts.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 3 April 2013]

A curious movie in which Ciaran Hinds, a recent widower with two young children, begins to have experiences that involve ghosts of people he knows or, in one case, a soon-to-be ghost. The visions or whatever they are tend to occur at night but are terrifying.

The story takes place in the Irish city of Cobh, where a writer's festival is taking place. (Yes, in Ireland, at least, serious writers are still taken seriously.) Hinds is hired as a limo driver and guide for a young British blond,Iben Hjejle, who is desperately trying to shed herself of the attentions of a self-indulgent American writer and former lover, Aidan Quinn.

With no one else to turn to, and in anguish, Hinds befriends Hjejle and tells her of his visions. Hinds has also written some stories about ghosts, autobiographical we presume, and Hjejle takes his manuscript to London with her, after leaving Hinds with a warm good-bye kiss and inviting him to visit her at any time.

It has a few shocking moments, not particularly well done. But it's an adult movie, in no way insulting, with some agreeable directorial touches, good performances, and fine casting. Hjejle is attractive without being a glamorous young sexpot. And Ciaran Hinds has the face of Humphrey C. Earwicker, the face of everyman. He looks as if he'd just stepped out of a factory that made toothpaste tubes.

It's neatly photographed, it captures Ireland's rainy temperament, and has several other virtues but it's sluggish, a kind of slice of life, in which events take place deliberately but accidentally, the way they do in reality. They don't rush after one another as they do in most films. I doubt that it will appeal to everyone but if you have patience and time, you should find this an interesting diversion.

Irish thriller (kind of)

[lee_eisenberg · 5/10 · 26 December 2010]

During the past few years, Ireland has largely made news due to its economic collapse. But one of the other things to come from the Emerald Isle was Conor McPherson's odd movie "The Eclipse". It focuses on a recently widowed man (Ciarán Hinds) who starts seeing eerie things while developing a relationship with a writer (Iben Hjejle). I should say that the movie has an overall interesting plot, contrasting the man's eerie visions with his struggle with an obnoxious author (Aidan Quinn) for the writer, but has sort of a vague, abrupt conclusion. As with a lot of thrillers, it seems like the sort of movie that they probably made knowing that it wasn't going to be any kind of groundbreaking movie. Still, a few scenes are certain to make you jump!

"I wait in a place where the shadows run from themselves." Cream; White Room

[zaenkney · 8/10 · 1 November 2010]

"The Eclipse" is a surreal walk in the shoes of a few Irish villagers. Some have criticized this piece for being somewhat disjointed and confusing. I must heartily disagree! It is simply a limited time in life of a few very interesting people in Ireland at a Literary Conference and how those lives rode a little rougher when disturbed by the supernatural.

For those who have forfeited pieces of your heart a bloody chunk at a time after losing someone dear, this movie will inspire. Our psyche, often in partnership with our dreams, can work through some regret, pain, loss, guilt and loneliness by gifting us very real visions in which we touch or hug that loved one, possibly even sharing meaningful words with them. In 2006 my sister died in a fire. On and off, for a few years, I experienced the sound of her calling my name in the night shortly after I fell asleep. This happened several times, waking me, bringing me to actually look for her. In fact, many years before that, I had the opportunity to be with and hold my infant daughter, who died of SIDS when she was 5 months. I held her preciousness in my arms and played with her several times over a matter of years. This always seemed to occur in the twilight of my sleep. At first, I experienced the loss of her, magnified when I awoke, knowing it was a dream; after a couple of years, I unexpectedly became grateful for the privilege to spend that time with her. Since my loss, I have talked with so many people who have experienced similar incidents. I can almost imagine these phenomena taking themselves just a step further. Can't you?

The enigmatic Ciaran Hinds has held my attention since I first noticed him in Jane Austen's "Persuasion". He seemed an unlikely, oafish sort for the part. I was wrong. The man, as I have witnessed since, is a great character actor and quite a strong, yet vulnerable, lead.

The music was beautiful and apropos, the subject matter intriguing, the acting well done and as a note of interest, the writer, Billy Roche, was the host of the literary event. While he was just short of invisible, he managed to create some comic relief. This was an eccentrically mysterious movie you will either love or not. It IS definitely worth the time to give it a try.

Convincing Performances, Worth Watching

[MtnShelby · 7/10 · 15 May 2014]

I'm always up for a ghost film, especially if it involves a gloomy, Gothic atmosphere and a remote, isolated location. The Eclipse doesn't disappoint. It's a hybrid film, a bit of romance, a good dose of loss-of- loved one melancholy, and a handful of jumpy ghost scenes. The characters are brought together through a literary festival, which also gives a generous dose of snark, mostly through Aidan Quinn's performance as a strangle- worthy author (a good role for this fine actor). The performances are all solid, but I especially enjoyed Ciarán Hinds as the lonely widower. The performance is so convincing--Hinds brings such genuine expression to this role, and it's a must-see for his fans. The film isn't going to satisfy hardcore ghost film or horror fans, but if you're into this type of contemporary Gothic film, it's certainly worth the time.

blend of romance, horror and mystery

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 1 June 2015]

Michael Farr (Ciarán Hinds) is a widower with two kids in an Irish seaside town. He experiences strange visions. His father-in-law is dying in a nursing home. He volunteers at the annual literary festival. The arrogant famous writer Nicholas Holden (Aidan Quinn) is a married womanizer who is trying to rekindle an affair with fellow writer Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle). Lena and Michael develop chemistry as the two men struggle for Lena.

As a horror movie, it's not a scary one. This is something much more an old slow quiet moody ghost story romance with some jump scares. Aidan Quinn's character is really off-putting and I wish his scenes with Iben Hjejle can be cut back. I also wish the kids are bigger parts of the movie. The saving grace is Ciarán Hinds and the power of his performance. He's quite compelling in every scene he's in. I do wish it ends with more drama.

One of the best movies at Tribeca 2009

[BobT2453 · 10/10 · 28 April 2010]

I never post movie reviews or blog about movies, but since I've been seeing so much hate on this website towards a really good film...I figure I'll give it a shot.

I saw this film at last year's Tribeca Film Festival, and it was, by far, the best movie at the whole festival. Before going in, all I knew was that The Eclipse was written and directed by playwright Conor McPherson. Not only does this film showcase McPherson's film-making talent, but it is also character actor Ciaran Hinds' first leading role--who ended up winning the Best Actor Award at the end of the TFF.

The film is a love story, a tragedy, and a little bit of a thriller. It blends all of these elements not only flawlessly, but effectively! You never know what to expect as each new scene unfolds, and as a result, every time you try to trust your sensibility towards cinema, the film does a 180º and we are suddenly in the middle of a horror film. If that's not engaging cinema, i don't know what is!

While I admit the "widowed father" set up is a bit tired, the film is so much better than that, and you sort of forget about that element once the film begins to move (unlike, The Boys Are Back).

Finally, with all of the elements considered, the film is a mere 88 minutes long. McPherson is able to mess with our sensibilities, throw in story elements from left and right, create fleshed out characters, and do it all within a small running time--the work of a true craftsman.

Ultimately, The Eclipse is a film that is not to be missed. Magnolia took their sweet time releasing this little gem, and I'm so happy to finally see it in limited release and OnDemand. I wish it would get the bigger treatment that it deserves, but if you can find it, by all means see it.

Beautiful and poignant, but leaves things...there.

[ranwulfs · 7/10 · 20 June 2022]

I quite enjoyed this little film, but in the end it deflated a bit. Still, Ciarán Hinds is absolutely stellar in this role, portraying a quiet, decent man who desperately misses his late wife. The briefest of romantic interludes with Iben Hjejle is a missed opportunity I think, and could have been made into something more, but the film doesn't suffer for it. Aidan Quinn's boorish character is a foil to Hinds, but really more an unnecessary distraction. Overall a wistful, melancholy film, and well worth your time.

What Happens Is Sincere, but There's Not Much to It

[RichardSRussell-1 · 4/10 · 3 May 2010]

The Eclipse (1:28, R) — Borderline, 3rd string, original

Since I mainly review science-fiction and fantasy films, I have a category called "borderline" for movies that are on the edge of those genres — stories that, seen from one angle, have some kind of SF&F element to them but which, from a different viewpoint, might involve just dreams, imaginings, hallucinations, premonitions, misunderstandings, and the like.

Just such a critter is The Eclipse. It's set in the city of Cobh, County Cork, Ireland, during a week-long literary festival, and it mainly follows the interactions of 3 people:

 • Michael Farr (Ciarán Hinds), a recently widowed book lover, father of 2 young children, who volunteers as a driver for the festival

 • Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle), an attractive writer of ghost stories, the most recent of which is entitled The Eclipse for no obvious reason and after which the movie is named, also for no obvious reason

 • Nicholas Holden (Aidan Quinn), a rich, famous, critically praised, best-selling author, who's let his success go to his head to the point where he's become an insufferable snob

Nicholas and Lena had a brief fling a year or so ago, when he claimed that he was separated from his wife (not borne out by subsequent events); he once again wants to get into her pants; and he thinks that this festival is the perfect opportunity to do so ... but this pretty barmaid will do until Lena overcomes her reluctance.

Meanwhile Michael is doing his best to juggle several different obligations, resulting in his being chronically late to drive the featured writers around, something that Nicholas nastily complains about but which prompts Lena to sympathetically inquire about his life circumstances. As they gradually find out more about each other, especially as Michael's sober solidity stands out in stark relief against Nicholas's drunken boorishness, they start to form a tentative connection.

The burgeoning attraction is based in part on Michael's turning to Lena as an expert on ghost sightings, since lately he's been terribly startled on a couple of occasions by the rotting appearance of his father-in-law, Malachy (Jim Norton), and he wonders whether it's all in his imagination or whether there's something supernatural going on. Mitigating against the latter is that Malachy is still alive, tho in a nursing home and hating it. But, when Lena inquires whether scratches Michael got during a struggle with the "ghost" might have been accidentally self-inflicted, he concedes that he might have been sleep-walking.

And, indeed, there lies the border. All of the apparitions occur when Michael is either dead tired or asleep, so they could have been the workings of an over-tired mind unduly fixated on death due to his continued mourning for his lost Eleanor. (He continues to wear his wedding ring and initially doesn't correct Lena when she mentions his wife.)

Not much happens in this movie. You get the impression that director Conor McPherson is sometimes just padding things out (as with the time he spends showing hotel staff setting up chairs in rows for an author reading). Ireland is beautiful, Cobh is charming, and the performances are uniformly good, but there just isn't much substance and hardly any resolution. I guess sometimes life is like that, but that's not really what I go to movies for.

Some strange scenes, one unforgettable, transcendent scene...

[BigBobFoonman · 23 August 2011]

I like ghost stories, the older and closer to the abyss I get, and there is one scene in this film that won the day for me. Hinds' character awakes one morning, to find his dead wife sitting on the bed, her hair gone to chemo, looking at him with darkened eyes. He does a double take, and she is still there, her lustrous, long, brown hair shining, and she looking well, a shadow of sad on her face. He is stunned, and cannot move as she gets up, sits down beside him on the bed and hugs him warmly for at least a minute...he weeps openly, and she gets up and drifts away. I cannot embellish that marvelous scene any more....

The detractions were the scenes of slasher gore as Hind's character saw visions of his wife's sick father, dead and rotting and grabbing for him....don't quite understand why those were in there, but this was a good film

Disappointing! Great potential for whole story line wasted!

[FourInTheFamily · 3/10 · 25 July 2010]

What a disappointment. It had such great potential, a widower who is seeing something in his house (a ghost?) and doesn't know whom to turn to, 2 children living with the father, a father-in-law who resents being put in a home, a writer of ghost stories who visits this town, and a narcissistic writer who wants to have an affair with the first writer. The intersection of all these characters had such promise -- wasted! The question of love and relationships gets several different views but they're all a little blurry.

We waited for all these character's interactions to be resolved, but for naught. We had to watch the special features with the actors talking about their characters to get enough background information to finish putting some of the story pieces together that didn't make it into the film.

One thing I especially liked during the film was that the surprise/intense scenes were not proceeded or accompanied by the scary-music-track that usually alerts the watchers to "here's the scary part." This is what was so lacking in the film -- almost all the pieces were there for a memorable, thoughtful, suspense-filled story. It is truly too bad that the story telling and editing didn't fulfill on the promise and premise of the movie.

There Is Nothing Like This

[hummingbird1965 · 10/10 · 7 February 2010]

This movie manages to be a really satisfying love story and an absolutely terrifying ghost story all at once. The criminally underrated Ciaran Hinds (who won the Best Actor Award at the Tribeca Film Festival for this) plays a woodwork teacher who has recently been widowed. He is bringing up his two kids and trying to get on with his life, but he is experiencing strange paranormal events. I won't give anything away but the movie leaves it to the viewer to decide if these are real ghosts or a result of his own internal journey to resolution. He meets a writer of horror novels called Lena Morelle (played by the really likable Iben Hjelje - remember her in High Fidelity?) when he volunteers at a local literary festival. He shares his experiences with her as their relationship develops, but she has to contend with another writer (a brilliant Aidan Quinn) who has come to the festival to re-ignite an affair they had in the past. The drama plays out against the backdrop of a beautifully shot Irish coastal town. The cinematography is just top-notch. The score is really haunting choral music. I was reminded of movies like The Exorcist or The Shining when I saw this -- the drama is real -- the horror is real. But this film is very original too. I was not surprised to see it get picked up for a US release. Could be a future classic.

Slow, poorly structured story offers one pleasing role...

[davdecrane · 5/10 · 11 April 2010]

A very strong performance from Aidan Quinn is all that this anemic story has to recommend it – and it's not enough. The film is really about a relationship between Ciaran Hinds and an author visiting a local writers' conference, Iben Hjejle, but it takes too long for the story to declare itself. As a result, except for Quinn's portrayal of another successful writer who once bedded down Hjejle and wants to do so again, the story meanders with incidents about Hinds' character missing his dead wife, and the odd ghostly appearance of a specter that appears related to the dead woman's father.

The film is well shot and mildly engaging but could have been so much more if the writer knew how to structure the real story. Melancholy is a mood, not a plot device and the screenplay offers too little too late any real drama, and then ends with a mushy coda that feels more like fantasy than an outgrowth of what unfolded to that point.

Again, not worth the time – but Aidan Quinn's performance is wonderful. His range has been woefully underutilized to date. If that changes, this slow, slightly morbid story will have been worthwhile – for at least him.

Viewed on Amazon VOD

Suspenseful domestic drama in the guise of a ghost story

[Humphrey_C_Earwicker · 9/10 · 29 July 2010]

This chilling and thoughtful thriller from top Irish playwright McPherson exemplifies what movie makers who've earned their chops on the stage can bring to the big screen. The characters are three-dimensional; sharp, efficient dialog defines the relationships and moves the plot forward; life in a recently bereaved family, a small Irish town, and a literary festival is acutely observed.

The Eclipse maintains a spooky tension throughout and in a few instances will have you jumping out of your skin. (One minor criticism: Loud incidental music is constantly deployed to manipulate viewers, a perennial flaw of many mystery and horror films.) However, this is not a traditional ghost story but a psychological drama filtered through the perspective of the widowed father masterfully portrayed by Ciaran Hinds. It's probably not too much of a stretch to compare The Eclipse to In Bruges, the debut film of Martin McDonagh, another acclaimed U.K. dramatist, in the way it exploits the conventions of genre even as it defies formula to tell a more original, gratifying story.

A bonus: The cathedral-dominated town of Cobh, Cork County, provides a stunningly picturesque backdrop to The Eclipse, while adding to the overall isolated, claustrophobic atmosphere.

Very slow character study of people w/ messy lives

[zhivago97 · 4/10 · 28 June 2021]

The acting was very good, but I do take issue with the fact this is labeled a horror, drama, art house film - in that order. Classifying this as a horror movie is like saying the Wizard of Oz is a nature show about poppy flowers and animals. The total actual horror elements amount to less than 30 seconds runtime while the rest of the movie is consumed with innumerable details about a few people with messy lives that intersect for a few days at a literary festival. You can guess what follows: lots of wine, books, crying, walks by the beach and arguing, all against the backdrop of sad piano music. Watching these characters play out their personal dramas will make you grateful you aren't one of them.

Does this movie want to be a horror flick or a drama? Saying it's both is not true. Adding 30 seconds of horror elements made it feel very disjointed, as they were not at all necessary. The "horror" or ghost element was more of a side note, or an afterthought, rather than a central theme.

Not a flop (the acting is good like I said), but a disappointment none the less,. Overall, I found the storyline to be slow and not very engaging, certainly not enough to justify a full length production. Some people may like this from a character study perspective, but it's not my cup of tea.

pointless

[Rob-O-Cop · 5/10 · 1 July 2010]

this movie may have had a point but it was so badly made it was lost on me. It didn't help that the story was all over the show. I have no idea what Adian Quinns part in all this was but he was an unappealing character drawn in cliché lines. Iben Hjejle's character was sort of interesting or heading towards it but never got there but at least she elicited more connection than Ciarán Hinds character who I really couldn't care less about. There were a couple of good scary moments in this film, but they were for absolutely no reason. Mybe the point of this movie was pointlessness, but that's not really a movie I want to spend time or money watching. Its one saving grace was its beautiful location and cinematography, which absolutely do NOT make a worthwhile watch.

Great emotional movie

[kraset74 · 10/10 · 3 December 2010]

This is maybe the only film I've seen that has had me start crying, and keep crying even 5 minutes after the film ended... and I couldn't really explain why.

It's a really nice mix between hints of supernatural happenings and a very emotional film about a guy living a quite ordinary life.

For me, it was very touching and the dialogs and the minimalistic and realistic role play by Ciarán Hinds was brilliant.

I can't see how this film could be improved. This film is a great example on how you can make a movie that doesn't stick to the well established genres, and still can be really successful.

If you are interested in supernatural ghost movies, this is probably nothing for you as it doesn't contain a lot of that (but a little). If you like emotional movies towards the melancholic direction and, yet, you are prepared to see something a bit different, then this film is for you! It's great.

Just awful

[chris-305-210295 · 1/10 · 29 February 2012]

It was an hour and a half of disjointed, disconnected, lazy, poorly executed backdrop vignettes that were glued together like a preschooler with two broken arms who was blinded in an unfortunate puppy mill accident during a freak blizzard in April, somewhere in Northwestern PA. On a Tuesday. The acting was wooden and trite. The story was so empty, it might as well have been a trough holding an ounce of water. The "events" in the movie were not explained at all. The ghosts made no sense. The emerging love story was empty and felt forced. The protagonist had absolutely no fleshing out in the story; why was he so involved in driving these people around when he had a day job, a family and a home to look after. Nothing about this movie made any sense.

$.02

If there is life after Death, Love lives on.

[pd5701 · 8/10 · 23 February 2010]

I saw a sneak preview of The Eclipse in Boston and loved it, as did the enthusiastic audience judging by their laughter, gasps of surprise and final, sustained, applause.

The cast were excellent and the ensemble playing was uniformly real. Ciaran Hinds (There Will be Blood, Munich and Miami Vice) was at his best and I understood why he deserved the Best Actor award he won at the last Tribeca Film Festival.

Aidan Quinn (Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, Songcatcher and Empire Falls) was brilliantly playing against type and succeeded in being funny, vain and creepy at the same time. Aidan won the Best supporting Actor at the IFTAs this year.

Iben Hjejle, who was in Defiance,is beautiful and very striking; a welcome fresh face to English Cinema. She more than holds her own among seasoned professionals. I look forward to seeing her films.

The excellent script, by Conor and Billy Roche, took the best screenplay award at the IFTAs.

The Film opens very soon and I urge everyone to see it.

Almost worthless.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 29 August 2010]

A depressed widower Michael Farr(Ciaran Hinds) believes he is not only sharing his home in Ireland with his two children, but also a restless, angry spirit. He volunteers his services at the annual literary festival and is assigned chauffeuring and tending to the needs of Lena Morelle(Iben Hjejle), who is known for her insightful ghost novels. Also attending the festival is author Nicholas Holden(Aidan Quinn)and his reputation of womanizing. Guess what, Michael and Nicholas end up competing for Lena's affection. All the while, Michael's visits from his supernatural vision is becoming more pronounced. Also in the cast: Dorothy Cotter, Jim Norton and Hilary O'Shaughnessy. THE ECLIPSE is directed by notable Irish playwright Conor McPherson.