"The Disappearance Of Finbar" (15) Virgin, Omniplex, UCI Coolock, UCI Tallaght, Ormonde Stillorgan, Dublin; Royal, Bray
The British documentary-maker. Sue Clayton. describes her first feature film The Disappearance Of Finbar, as "My Own Private Idaho meets Strictly Ballroom - an exploration of loss with a twist and a happy ending". Perhaps a more pertinent cinematic reference point for her film is Fridrik Thor Fridrikson's engaging recent Icelandic movie, Cold Fever, with its story of a man who decides to leave his natural environment for a personal mission into the vast, freezing expanses of Scandinavia.
In Clayton's lyrical and good-humoured film, the eponymous Finbar is a cocky young Dublin soccer player (played by Jonathan Rhys Myers), who is selected for a trial with Zurich AC Grass-hoppers, but returns home disenchanted after a month. When Finbar abruptly leaps off a flyover in Tallaght, nothing is heard of him for over a year until a pop singer, inspired by the story of Finbar's disappearance, writes a sentimental Eurosong which becomes a hit, complete with its off-the-wall pop video. Tormented by his sense of loss, Finbar's best friend Danny (Luke Griffin) finally learns that Finbar has been in Stockholm, and begins his Scandinavian odyssey to find him.
There is a refreshing unpredictability about Clayton's quirky and likeable movie, which she and Dermot Bolger adapted from Carl Lombard's novel The Disappearance Of Rory Brophy. The change of the pivotal character's name may well have been to facilitate a well-signposted red herring word-play - when Danny stumbles upon the Finn Bar, a remote Finnish dance hall where migrant workers tango the night away.
Long in gestation, The Disappearance Of Finbar suffered logistical problems on its Lapp locations which postponed its completion by a year. Despite such upheaval, there are no discernible continuity problems about the finished film, although it might have gained had the rather protracted Dublin sequences been tightened.
That said, it remains a thoroughly intriguing and diverting experience which makes full use of its distinctive locations, as captured by Patrice Leconte's regular lighting cameraman, Eduardo Serra. It is sparked by a lively, offbeat sense of humour and accompanied by an atmospheric score composed by Davy Spillane.
The film marks out its previously unfamiliar young Irish stars, Luke Griffin and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, as actors to watch, with Griffin having the more demanding of the two roles. Indeed, Rhys-Meyers, who followed it by playing the Beal na mBlath assassin in Michael Collins, has featured in a succession off international productions soon to be released. The supporting cast, notably includes Sean McGinley, Sean Lawlor, Lorraine Pilkington and the young Swedish actress, Fanny Risberg.
One Fine Day" (12) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
It's dislike at first sight in Michael Hoffman's One Fine Day as two harried New Yorkers, both of them single parents, are drawn together when their children miss a school trip. Could these adults just possibly fall in love with each other? Clue: They're played by Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.
Pfeiffer plays Melanie, an ambitious architect in the final stages of presenting a major project, while Clooney's character, Jack, is an outspoken Daily News columnist chasing a deadline and a hot political corruption expose. Melanie is divorced from her selfish ex-husband and lives with her young son, while Jack is taking care of his five-year-old daughter while his ex-wife is enjoying her second honeymoon.
Taking its title from the Gerry Goffin-Carole King pop song which was originally a hit for the Chiffons, One Fine Day is structured by its screenwriters, Terrel Seltzer and Ellen Simon (daughter of Neil) in the mould of the fondly remembered Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn and Doris Day-Rock Hudson romantic comedies of combative protagonists reluctantly letting down their defences and surrendering to love. In its almost-quaint use of split screen for telephone calls between Pfeiffer and Clooney - who have accidentally swapped cellular phones - it explicitly recalls the delightful Day-Hudson comedy, Pillow Talk.
While One Fine Day does not have the wit and sophistication of its aforementioned antecedents - and it is burdened by two juvenile performers who become hard to take after a while - director Michael Hoffman, who recently made Soapdish and Restoration, fashions an appealing treatment from a familiar storyline in this undemanding entertainment. To the quite considerable benefit of his movie, it is sparked by the star quality and on- screen chemistry of Clooney and Pfeiffer, with Clooney looking altogether more at ease than in this embarrassing outing as Batman last week.
Unhook The Stars" (members and guests only) IFC, Dublin
The son of Gena Rowlands and the late John Cassavetes, Nick Cassavetes makes his directing debut with the melancholy Unhook The Stars, a low-key, slow- burning character study which gradually seduces its audience. At its core is Gena Rowlands's portrayal of an ageing widow at a crossroads in her life. Her character, Mildred, has devoted herself to caring for her family who are now grown-up and have moved away, leaving her to face life all on her own.
When she befriends Monica (Marisa Tomei), a physically abused young neighbour, Mildred becomes a mother all over again to Monica's endearing six-year-old son (Jake Lloyd), while tentatively getting involved with a Quebecois truck driver played by Gerard Depardieu.
Much more conventional in form than the raw, gritty movies directed by his father, Nick Cassavetes's first feature nonetheless catches the inherent humanity and curiosity of his father's work, and the young Cassavetes shows that he, too, is capable of eliciting uniformly well- etched performances from a well-chosen cast.
He gives his mother, the luminous Gena Rowlands, her best role since John Cassevetes directed her in Gloria back in 1980. A marvellously expressive actress, Rowlands subtly catches Mildred's newfound vulnerability in this sensitive and thoughtful emotional drama. Marisa Tomei is, refreshingly, rather more relaxed than usual, while newcomer Jake Lloyd - who went on to do Jingle All The Way and is now playing the boy who grows up to be Darth Vader in the first Star Wars prequel - is one of the more natural American child actors to emerge in recent years, and a very good deal more agreeable than the kids in One Fine Day.
It is all the more unfortunate, then, that Nick Cassavetes went on to lose his way so completely with his shrill, over-acted second feature She's So Lovely, which competed at Cannes in May.
Helen Meany adds:
"It Takes Two" (PG), Savoy, Dublin
Once upon a time, there was a lonely little rich girl, who lived in a vast, cold mansion ... Andy Tennant's film is a contemporary fairytale, or, less charitably, a live-action cartoon. Every single character is a stereotype and it's stuffed with cliche's, but the performances are good and it has its funny moments. It offers the comfortable pleasures of a bland romantic comedy, in which everything has to come right in the end.
Primarily aimed at children, it is untouched by irony or subtlety, but also refreshingly free of the knowing winks and double entendres added to so many "family films" to keep adults amused.
The story? Roger (Steve Guttenberg), a soft-hearted millionaire and widower, and Diane (Kirstie Alley) a dedicated social worker, are brought together through the plotting of two identical little girls: the orphaned Amanda (Mary-Kate Olsen) who is in Diane's care, and Roger's daughter Alyssa (Ashley Olsen).
When these two girls from different social classes swap places, confusion worthy of a Shakespearean comedy ensues. The tasteless, gold- digging viper (Jane Sibbett) who wants to marry Roger, is sent packing, starry-eyed romance triumphs and a nice, new, middle-class nuclear family is formed. Three children in front of me chortled their way through this, and it could be just the thing for a glacial July afternoon.
. Today's other new release is The Quest (18), opening at cinemas across the country. Jean-Claude Van Damme turns director with this action- adventure movie which is set in the 19295 and features himself in the leading role, as a New York pick-pocket employing his combat skills in an apparently fabled winner-take-all competition against some of the deadliest fighters in the world. Roger Moore co-stars as a rapscallion pirate.
