Dancing at Lughnasa, director Pat O'Connor's film adaptation of the Brian Friel play, opened in New York yesterday to generally warm, if mixed reviews, with critics praising the cast performance and directing, but appearing less certain about the film as a whole. The New York Times on the front page of its Weekend section said: "Though Dancing at Lughnasa has a fine cast, visual scale and resplendent look of a magnum opus, it remains a collection of sea changes and splendidly realised small moments rather than a story of overarching action.
"The sooner the viewer recognises as much, the easier it is to discount some falsely inflated sequences here and appreciate the keenly observed, wonderfully delicate performances on display."
The national broadsheet USA Today was more positive in its review, but a little more cautious in its choice of words.
"Brian Friel's stage play gives film-maker Pat O'Connor the chance to dip his spade into authentic Irish soil - and hit a few rocks," the reviewer wrote.
"Scene for scene the movie is by no means a grind . . . But taken as a whole, it feels constrained and borderline incoherent, perhaps because there are too many characters to get their due in a 95-minute telling."
Jami Bernard, a film critic in New York's largest circulation tabloid, the New York Daily News, awarded the film a three star rating.
By comparison, Brad Pitt's new picture Meet Joe Black and horror movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer received only one star each.
"Streep's sadly comic performance as the inflexible rule-maker is another for her gallery of magnificent portrayals," wrote Bernard of Meryl Streep's lead performance.
Referring to the directing of Pat O'Connor, Bernard is equally complimentary: "O'Connor's direction is also honest and straightforward. From the very beginning, when the sisters anxiously check themselves in a cracked mirror, it's clear that the sisters are about to dance their last and most important dance."
See also On the Town, Weekend section.