Very young, romantic gal falls in love with a sophisticated, much older man. Relationship fails. Gal gets over it rather quickly. Sound just a wee bit THIN, story wise? Sound like it'd work better in Edna O'Brien's novel from which it was adapted (by Ms. O'Brien)? Yeah, me too. Certainly the film makers seem to think so. Why else the pretty cinematographic tour of Dublin and the Irish countryside, the fancy schmancy editing and low angle shots, and that constant, annoying oboe music like some artsy fartsy fly in our ear if not to distract us from the fact that there's not much meat on the bone, as it were?
As in most UK films it's the acting that saves it and keeps you watching. Rita Tushingham does her combination of waif and sharp observer of life with her usual charm while Peter Finch is fine as a world weary novelist. Also good in support are Marie Kean as a tough, loyal servant and Julian Glover as a smarmy, obnoxious poet (are there any other kind?). But for my dough it's Lynn Redgrave, stealing every scene she's in as a brassy, funny, cheeky sidekick, kind of an Irish Thelma Ritter, who is the best in the cast. C plus.
As in most UK films it's the acting that saves it and keeps you watching. Rita Tushingham does her combination of waif and sharp observer of life with her usual charm while Peter Finch is fine as a world weary novelist. Also good in support are Marie Kean as a tough, loyal servant and Julian Glover as a smarmy, obnoxious poet (are there any other kind?). But for my dough it's Lynn Redgrave, stealing every scene she's in as a brassy, funny, cheeky sidekick, kind of an Irish Thelma Ritter, who is the best in the cast. C plus.