Rental: The Eclipse (2009)
Release Date: DVD April 2010
Rating: R for language and disturbing imagery
Starring: Ciarán Hinds, Iben Hjejle and Aidan Quinn
Writer/Director: Conor McPherson
Based on short story by Billy Roche
I am a sucker for a good ghost story. Any thing that chills the spine and makes the tiny blond hairs on the back of my neck stand up is pure movie gold in my eyes. I first saw the trailer for The Eclipse on Hulu a while back and thought it looked subtly eerie which can be a perfect recipe for a ghost story. The mixture of the Irish countryside with its grayish landscapes and rocky coast tossed in with sad piano melodies made the film emotionally endearing while at the same time delivering disturbing shocks and jolts to keep you unsettled.
Basically the story is about three people who’s lives intersect during one weekend at a writers conference in a small Irish town. Hinds plays a widower who lives with two children he is left to raise after his wife dies from cancer. He picks up a writer named Lena, played by Hjejle, who he is admittedly a fan of. Lena writes supernatural stories about ghostly encounters and when she learns that Michael has been having strange if not horrifying experiences involving ghosts himself she develops a connection with him that gets them both through a difficult situation. Lena is being semi-stalked by another famous writer named Nicholas Holden, played by Quinn, who is as arrogant as he is persistent in his desire to rekindle some fling he had with her previously.
The story is very slow moving for the most part with sporadic jolts of the supernatural to maintain the ghostly theme, but only just barely. I felt the film was more of a drama about connections people have and the ways those are made and lost rather than a film about the afterlife and souls reaching from beyond for any purpose. My biggest problem with the film, and probably my only issue with it was the fact that it ended abruptly without any real resolution or revelation. I found myself say, “Are you kidding?” when the credits rolled because I really did expect more to the story. I guess to be frank that is what you get when you turn a short story into a full length movie without embellishing the plot enough. I did enjoy the film, premature ending or not, with its moody music and heartfelt characters but still the thrill enthusiast in me would have liked to see a bit more of the super in this supposed supernatural tale.
– Meh, could have been better
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