THE ECLIPSE is about Michael Farr
(Cairan Hinds), a teacher, who is raising his kids alone since his wife died from cancer two years ago. He volunteers to help at a literary festival that his small Irish town is holding. He has been hearing and seeing strange things at night.
He is assigned to drive around author Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle), the writer of a book about ghost encounters called
The Eclipse. He bonds with her and opens about his experiences. Meanwhile, Lena
is distracted by another author, Nichola Holden (Aidan Quinn), with whom she had a brief affair. Their lives converge with each other and change each of their lives.
THE ECLIPSE is a film about love, fear
of the unknown, and learning to deal with grief (when you don’t want to let go).
It is an interesting film as it doesn’t fall into the usual things that happen in many ghost movies. It stays grounded and focuses on the lives of the three main characters during the course of a few days. It is low key when it is about what Michael experiences and makes the
moments when ghosts appear more powerful. Cairan Hinds sells the grief that Michael
is holding onto and how the things he sees is unsettling him. Aidan Quinn
makes us believe he is a pompus author while Iben Hjejle plays Lena as a character that Michael may
have a future with.
SPECIAL FETAURES:
The almost 30 minute MAKING OF THE ECLISPE
has interviews with cast and crew as they talk about the film and the making-of it in addition to mentioning the script was
72 pages (and the first cut was three hours long). HDNET: A LOOK AT THE
ECLIPSE is a 4 ½ minute promotional fluff featurette.
FINAL ANALYSIS: THE ECLIPSE keeps the ghost stuff low key while making the smart move to keep the characters grounded
and focuses on their lives. This movie isn’t for you if you’re
looking for a Hollywood ghost story. If you want to see
a character drama, you may want to see THE ECLIPSE for what the actors bring to the characters.
This DVD review is ©6-25-2010 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com
