This is My Father

Released 1999
Stars James CaanAidan Quinn, Moya Farrelly, Gina Moxley, Jacob Tierney, Donal Donnelly, Maria McDermottroe, Moira Deady, Stephen Rea
Directed by Paul Quinn

On my first trip to Ireland, in 1967, I was taken to a party after the pubs closed. There were bottles of whiskey and Guinness stout, someone had a concertina, and there was a sing-song. In the bedroom, a couple was making out. Eventually they emerged to join the party, and I noticed that, to my young eyes, they were "old"--in their 40s. On the way home, I asked my friend McHugh about that, and he explained that they had been engaged for 15 years, that they were putting off marriage until the man made more money, and until "family matters" got sorted out. Necking at parties was undoubtedly the extent of their sex lives, since intercourse before marriage was a mortal sin. I said I thought it was sad that two middle-aged people, who had loved each other since they were young, had put their lives on hold. "Welcome to Ireland," he said.

It is not like that anymore in Ireland, where some of the old customs have died with startling speed. But that is the Ireland remembered in "This Is My Father," a film about lives ruled by guilt, fear, prejudice and dour family pride. The movie is said to be based on a true family story and has been made by Chicago's Quinn brothers. The heart of the story involves Kieran O'Day (Aidan Quinn) and Fiona Flynn (Moya Farrelly), who fall passionately in love in 1939. He is an orphan, being reared by a tenant couple named the Maneys (Donal Donnelly and Maria McDermottroe) on land owned by Fiona's mother, Mary (Gina Moxley). The mother has fierce pride, not improved by a drinking problem and looks down on her neighbors. Of course she opposes a liaison between her daughter and a tenant. This story is told in flashback. In the present day, we meet a sad, tired high school teacher (James Caan) whose mother is dying and whose life is going nowhere. He determines to go back to Ireland and search for his roots. In the village where his mother came from, he finds an old gypsy woman (Moira Deady) who remembers with perfect clarity everything that happened in 1939 and triggers the flashbacks.

Summary by Roger Ebert

This film has the most emotionally devastating ending I've seen for a long time. Hollywood avoids a down ending like the plague, which is what makes true indie pictures like this a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately the rest of the film doesn't live up to the ending. There was just too much of this here and too little of that there. The thread of the nephew, for example, seemed to be tacked onto the side. There was too little of the character to go anywhere or to have any relevance to the story. The same could be said for James Caan's character. Every time the movie builds  momentum with the flashbacks, that momentum is interrupted to return to the present. If it weren't for the incredibly satisfying ending, I'd be hesitant to recommend this, but the ending is incredibly moving. --Bill Alward, August 25, 2001