The Eclipse (2010)

Pretty Good

Nice effects though.

Good movie but grossly overrated

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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.

Dear Irish Film Board, the next time you feel you absolutely must include a love triangle in a (horror) drama, at least make sure you choose a woman that is worth fighting over and that the male audience can show interest in. The British Isles are famous for their gorgeous freckled women, so I really don't see why Iben Hjejle was cast to be anyone's love obsession, much less Aidan Quinn's, who I hear is quite popular with the ladies. She looks like Amanda Plummer, frcrissakes. Aidan Quinn gets a panic attack over her, then gets drunk coz she won't commit to him, and then into a fist-fight. Or did I just dream it all? Actually, as it turns out, she is Danish. (They have beautiful women too, so WTF.) Dear Irish Film Board, it's me again, the somewhat disgruntled viewer of your drama-pretending-to-be-also-horror-so-that-it-makes-more-cash, "The Eclipse". The actress Iben isn't even English, yet she was impersonating an English woman for the role. Why would you cast an unattractive Danish woman with a strange accent when you could have easily found a charismatic, sexy British lass with the proper accent for the role? Why do you hate your viewers so much? Why dabble in filmic black magic arts when you can have it straight-forward and effective?Why do some producers seem to believe that beautiful women don't belong in serious drama? Meryl Streep and Glenn Close are a staple of those. If you want more guys to see your darned chick-flicks, you might as well make a radical change in attitude, people.TE is a rather forgettable, pointless drama in which the ghosts pretty much suffer from extreme neglect. Their appearances, what few there are, serve as mere plot-devices to fuel the romance between a depressed widower and an ugly Danish actress with a damn unpronounceable name. All this, just so we can have that utterly predictable punch-up between the widower and Quinn at the end, in which – thankfully – Iben gets punched in the face as well. (And I attest to the fact that the hit actually improved her face somewhat.)

I won't write a comprehensive review here, but there were several things that I wanted to comment on.The cinematography and music were flat-out brilliant. I visited Ireland this past summer, in and around Cobh, County Cork, among many other places. I thought the movie captured the Irish countryside and cityscapes completely, especially in concert with the film score. Each scene was set up meticulously, and color and scenery factored in every shot. This movie took me back to one of my favorite parts of our world.The scene where Michael Farr's character seems to say "goodbye" to his wife near the end will leave you with a hole in your heart. The setup of this scene brought Farr's wife into his arms one more time, and the hug was real. At the end of this hug, tears are streaming down his face, his wedding ring is still on, and his arms are empty. They had just held his wife, or had they... Anyone who has found the love of their life will understand the sheer and yet unresolvable emptiness of Farr's arms at that moment. I think this moment was captured very well.

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.