A tepid cup of Irish coffee, heavy on the whipped cream, but with a good stiff dose of Natasha Richardson. She, doing an expert American accent, proves again to be a gifted sophisticated comedienne, a far cry and a hard climb from Patty Hearst, not to mention a good long ways above her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, on the scale of comfort and relaxation. Above her sister Joely, for that matter, too. The premise has to do with a merry widow and woman of the world (Richardson) who comes to live among a black-garbed hierarchy of widows in a tiny dot on the map of Ireland called Kilshannon. What is this brightly bedecked woman doing there? And why does she go out of her way to enlist the local snoop as her housekeeper? And what does the village spinster (Mia Farrow) have against her? The answers will come clear in an easily foreseeable "surprise" ending -- nothing to shatter the lulling tone of cozy gentility. There are occasional mild amusements (very mild, very occasional) and a nice selection of clothes, cars, boats, vintage 1920s. With Joan Plowright, Adrian Dunbar, Jim Broadbent; directed by John Irvin. (1994) — Duncan Shepherd
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