A
SINGLE FATHER ESTABLISHES A PRECEDENT TO GET BACK HIS CHILDREN
IN EVELYN
When Evelyn
begins, Desmond Doyle (played by Pierce Brosnan) is celebrating
Christmas together with his wife and their three children
in Dublin; the year is 1953. Earlier, Desmond lost his job
and had been spending so much time drinking at the local pub
that his wife saw greener pastures with another man, and she
leaves with him for Australia right after Christmas. When
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children finds
out, Doyle accepts the assistance of nuns, who clean his flat
and prepare meals for his children, but he appears in court
one day to hear a judge order the reassignment of his children
to homes run by the Catholic church. According to an Irish
law passed in 1941, children living in households without
income to support them can become wards of the state. Although
Doyle promises to raise funds by singing in pubs to the musical
accompaniment of his father (played by Frank Kelly), and he
expects a job opening in a few months, the judge falsely tells
him that the reassignment is temporary, presumably until he
can provide the means to support his children. As his solicitor
Michael Beattie (played by Stephen Rea) indicates, family
law in Ireland is a conspiracy between church and state. One
day, Evelyn writes to tell him about being slapped by Sister
Brigid (played by Andrea Irvine) when she objected to corporal
punishment being performed on one of her classmates, provoking
Doyle to go to see his daughter, to choke the nun, and to
threaten her with bodily harm if she were ever again to abuse
his daughter. Meanwhile, Doyle's financial situation improves,
so he asks his solicitor to reclaim his children, and indeed
three lawyers team up to help, including barrister Nick Barron
(played by Aidan Quinn) and Tom Connelly (played by Alan Bates),
an expert on family law who had retired as a barrister two
years earlier. But the law requires a signed release by a
mother to have children return to their father, an impossibility
since Doyle has no knowledge of wife's new address. Accordingly,
Doyle's petition is denied. Afterward, Connelly decides to
challenge the constitutionality of the Irish law, though hitherto
no Irish law had ever been held unconstitutional. Then Doyle's
case attracts the attention of the press, and public sympathy
is on his side. The film thus culminates in a trial before
the Supreme Court, in which the pious testimony of his daughter
Evelyn (played by Sophie Vavasseur) humbles the prosecutor.
By a vote of 2-1 the law is declared unconstitutional. Doyle
gets back his children, and others are to be freed based on
the same precedent. A title at the end indicates that the
law was amended to provide for single-parent custody of children.
The film caters to many Irish stereotypes--drinking, joking,
singing, and most importantly fighting for principle. And
there is a love triangle, but again justice prevails. Directed
by Bruce Beresford (nominated for a Political Film Society
award in 1991 for Driving Miss Daisy)
and based on a true story, Evelyn
has been nominated by the Political Film Society as best film
exposé and best film on human rights for 2002. MH
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