Deborah Warner Movies

Love, politics, and class at once bring together and tear apart an extended family in this period drama. In 1920, Ireland is in the midst of a political upheaval, as upper class Anglo-Irish Protestants are driven from the country by the nation's increasingly vocal wishes Irish Catholic majority. Sir Richard Naylor (Michael Gambon) and his wife Lady Myra (Maggie Smith) are wealthy members of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy who slowly realize the life they've known in County Cork is coming to an end. Living with the Naylors are their financially-embarrassed friends Hugo and Francie Montmorency (Lambert Wilson and Jane Birkin); Marda Norton (Fiona Shaw), another friend who was one involved with Hugo; their nephew Laurence (Jonathan Slinger), a student at Oxford; and their niece Lois (Keeley Hawes). Lois is infatuated with Gerald (David Tennat), a British officer helping to mind the Naylors' property, though Myra believes he's beneath Lois' station; however, she's also keenly attracted to Connolly (Gary Lydon), an IRA soldier who is hiding in a mill on the estate. The Last September was based on the novel by Elizabeth Bowen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide