Charlene McKenna Movies
A small war between science and religion is waged over the fate of a mentally ill teen in this thriller from writer and director Agnes Merlet. Jane Morton (Carice van Houten) is a psychotherapist who has been summoned to a small island community off the coast of Ireland to investigate a case of a profoundly disturbed young woman. Dorothy Mills (Jenn Murray) is a teenager who strangled a young girl outside a church for no apparent reason; she's being kept in the village hospital, where she displays a broad variety of bizarre and violent behavior. Jane soon diagnoses Dorothy as suffering from multiple personality disorder and attempts to sort out the various anti-social identities that battle for control of her mind. But Pastor Ross (Gary Lewis), head of the local church, has a different view of Dorothy's problem -- he's convinced Dorothy has been possessed by the devil, and he believes an exorcism is the cure, not therapy. A number of Ross's parishioners share his views and don't want Jane imposing her big-city ways on them, even as the doctor is getting to the roots of Dorothy's problems. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carice van Houten, Jenn Murray, (more)
Deliverance and Tailor of Panama director John Boorman returns to the director's chair for this tale of a hawkish businessman who slowly finds his life being taken over by the twin brother he never knew he had. Liam O'Leary (Brendan Gleeson) is a no-nonsense real-estate developer who isn't above greasing the politician's wheels a bit to get the permits he needs. His 20-year marriage to Jane (Kim Cattrall) has been stale for over a decade, and his adolescent son, Connor (Brian Gleeson), has most recently taken to communism as a means of showcasing his rebellious streak. Though Liam still dotes on his aging mother (Moira Deady), it's plain to see that his sister, Oona (Sinéad Cusack), is the favored child in the family. One day, stuck in traffic on the way home from work and frustrated at his inability to obtain planning permission for a multi-million pound stadium, Liam is shocked to see his spitting image approach his car and begin cleaning the windshield while begging for change. Now, after discovering that he was not only adopted but has an identical twin as well, Liam finds his life rapidly being taken over by a cunning doppelganger who has had enough of life on the streets, and has finally found a means of turning his luck around by simply stepping into the shoes of his more successful counterpart. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brendan Gleeson, Kim Cattrall, (more)
Brian Kirk's gothic thriller Middletown excoriates the actions and attitudes of the Irish Catholic clergy by honing in on one psychotically deranged fire-and-brimstone preacher. Matthew MacFadyen is Gabriel Hunter, a priest fresh from missions work in Africa. After 15 years of service in the field, Gabriel returns to his hometown in Ireland to occupy the now-vacant pulpit. Once there, he re-encounters three members of his working-class brood: his father, Bill Hunter (Gerard McSorley); his younger brother, the service station attendant Jim (Daniel Mays); and Jim's expectant wife Caroline (Eva Birthistle), who runs the local speakeasy. The family welcomes Gabriel home, but from the first moments of his arrival, he projects a violent, hair-trigger temper; relentless, psychopathic bursts of unchecked anger; and a sadistic obsession with inflicting pain and cruelty on everything and everyone around him -- from squelching live mice beneath his heels to strangling the neck of a chicken that he seizes during a cockfight. From the pulpit, Gabriel uses sermons to relentlessly damn the members of his congregation for their sins, including all activity at the local pub, which he perceives as a den of iniquity. When Gabriel hears Caroline's refusal to have her child baptized, the statement pushes him completely over the edge and triggers a string of increasingly violent acts that will bring the entire community to its knees -- and threaten the lives and safety of Bill, Jim, Caroline, and the newborn baby. Daragh Carville authored the script. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew MacFadyen, Daniel Mays, (more)
An Irish boy becomes an emotional and sexual outcast as the 1960s fade into the 1970s in this period drama from director Neil Jordan. When he was just a baby in the early '60s, Patrick Braden (Conor McEvoy) was abandoned by his mother and left on the doorstep of a church overseen by Father Bernard (Liam Neeson). Placed in a foster home, sensitive Patrick doesn't much care for the emotionally chilly attitude of his new "family," and psychologically buffers himself against the world by writing stories that make fun of Father Bernard and the other authority figures in his life. As he grows into adulthood, Patrick (played as an adult by Cillian Murphy) also discovers that he enjoys dressing in women's clothes and prefers the company of men, and as a teenager he falls into an affair with Billy Hatchet (Gavin Friday), a nightclub performer who also runs guns for the Irish Republican Army. In the early '70s, Patrick -- who has since taken on the drag name "Kitten" -- makes his way to London, where he becomes involved with Bertie (Stephen Rea), a small-time nightclub magician who gives the young man a place to say, a sense of security, and a job as his on-stage assistant. However, Patrick's idyllic life with Bertie proves short-lived when his old friends come to town on IRA "business." Breakfast on Pluto also features a supporting performance from former Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cillian Murphy, Stephen Rea, (more)
