The Eclipse

Conor McPherson's satisfyingly literate ghost story stars Ciarán Hinds as Michael Farr, a dour woodshop teacher in an Irish seaside town that hosts an annual literary festival. Still mourning the death of his wife from cancer and doing his best to raise his two children, Farr volunteers as a chauffeur for attending authors, not only because he once harbored aspirations to become a writer, but also as a way of momentarily dealing with his personal situation. But Farr can't escape his grief: he's not only haunted by the memory of his spouse, but also by the literal spirit of his still-living father-in-law, who is unhappily housed in a nursing home. So when Farr is assigned to drive a British writer, Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle), whose books deal with paranormal phenomena, he naturally asks her about his own unsettling supernatural experiences, and their conversations blossom into friendship. Complicating matters, however, is the event's star attraction, American novelist Nicholas Holden (Aidan Quinn), an arrogant drunk who's also attracted to Lena. Boasting exceptional performances by Hinds and Quinn, The Eclipse is an evocative character study wrapped in a quietly unnerving tale about the pain of personal loss. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” featurette (28 min.), an HDNet promo featurette (5 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray is the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a winning film.] (F. Swietek)