The Run Of The Country

Albert Finney and director Peter Yates, who worked together on The Dresser, team again in this adaptation by Shane Connaughton (My Left Foot) of his own novel, an intelligently nuanced coming-of-age story about an 18-year-old Irish lad (newcomer Matt Keeslar) adjusting to the death of his mother, learning to communicate with his demanding father (Finney), falling in with a disreputable local worker (Anthony Brophy), and impregnating a young woman (Victoria Smurfit) on the other side of the northern Irish border. What keeps this watchable are the performancesFinney and Brophy are especially goodbut the story is a routine one we’ve all seen before. (JR) Read more