The Four Letters of Love – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director Polly Steele
Writer Niall Williams
Stars Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter, Gabriel Byrne

This film is an adaptation by Niall Williams of his much-acclaimed 1997 novel of the same title. In 1971, William Coughlan (Pierce Brosnan) was a civil servant with a run-of-the-mill existence. But a damascene moment while sitting at his desk alters everything as it directs him to become a painter. He leaves his secure existence and heads to the West of Ireland to follow his calling. His teenage son Nicholas (Fionn O’Shea) and his wife, Bette (Imelda May), are discombobulated. Meanwhile, on an island off the west coast, Muiris Gore (Gabriel Byrne) and his wife Margaret (Helen Bonham Carter) are coming to terms with the fact that their teenage daughter Isabel (Ann Skelly) must leave their island home to continue her education in the local convent on the mainland. So, two families are facing dislocation to varying degrees.

There is a collection of other characters, including an unyielding mother superior of the convent, a totally unsuitable lover for Isabel and her brother, Sean, who is paralysed in a tragic accident early on in the story. These various characters provide a background to the life of Isabel. However, the main plot is how Nicholas and Isabel become entangled and how they can find a way forward..

One of the strengths of the film is the magnificent scenery of Donegal and County Antrim. It is enchanting.  But the interiors of the homes and pubs depicted pay homage to an imagined perspective of rural Ireland more in tune with a John Hinde postcard than the reality which actually existed. John Hinde postcards were still in their heyday in 1971.

The principal story, that of Isabel and Nicholas, is, to an extent, overwhelmed by what is going on in each of their respective families. What keeps the film just above the waterline is the quality of the acting, particularly Fionn O’Shea and Ann Skelly.

This is a love story beset, like many love stories, by many challenges, but the concentration in the film on the two families dwarfs what is happening between Isabel and Nicholas. The adaptation of a novel to the screen is a skill. While Williams has received a great deal of acclaim for his novel, his adaptation of it to the screen is unlikely to receive similar acclaim.