CHICAGO FILM FEST ROUNDUP PART I - Reading my last post, I noticed that when I wrote, "...all the great movies I've seen so far," and then mentioned 'Evelyn,' one might conclude that I'm including Pierce Brosnan's Irish labor of love in that list of "great movies." I'm not. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Festival kicked off Friday, Oct. 4 with a tribute to Brosnan -- yes, James Bond was in the theater -- followed by a screening of 'Evelyn.' Back on 9/25 I mocked, slightly, the Fest's selection of Brosnan for a career achievement award. I mean, really, name one really good movie Brosnan's ever been in. Hell, other than the Bond movies, name any movie Brosnan's been in. I never saw 'The Thomas Crown Affair' remake and I wasn't as impressed with 'The Tailor of Panama' as most critics were (He's subverting his Bond character by playing an unscrupulous, less-than-charming spy. Brilliant!) But in all fairness, I think Brosnan is a decent actor who is hampered by his looks. There is a reason why his resume is filled with roles as spies and private detectives. You simply can't play "serious," "character" roles with a matinee idol face. And even if you can, most casting agents and directors would balk at the notion. To Brosnan's credit, though, he has used his wealth and fame from the Bond franchise to start his own production company, Irish Dreamtime, and work on projects that only a handful of people will ever even get a chance to see, much less want to see. 'Evelyn' is one such project. The film is based on the true story of Desmond Doyle (Brosnan), an out-of-work decorator whose wife runs away with another man, leaving him to raise his three kids -- a daughter, Evelyn, and two younger boys. The problem is that in 1950s Ireland the Irish Children's Act states that a man cannot raise children without a mother around, especially if he has no means to provide for them. The kids basically become wards of the Catholic church/state and are thrown in with all the other orphans. With the help of his lawyers, a modest "dream team" played by Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, and Alan Bates, Doyle decides to fight the power and try to get his kids back. Surely you can guess where it goes from there. 'Evelyn' is a real crowd-pleaser -- the audience at the fabulous Chicago Theatre actually cheered during some of the courtroom scenes -- and I almost bought into it myself until the last half-hour, when director Bruce 'Driving Miss Daisy' Beresford pulls out all of the manipulative stops to provoke an emotional response from us. Take, for example, Desmond's "big speech" at the end to win his kids back -- Beresford actually starts the sappy, dramatic music before Desmond starts talking, just in case you couldn't deduce the significance of the moment. He couldn't even wait for the speech to begin for some momentum to build. When directors do this, and far too many do, it can only mean one of three things: 1) They don't trust the writing enough. 2) They don't trust the actor(s) enough. 3) They don't trust the audience enough. Either option means the audience gets hit over the head with whatever message the director is peddling. It didn't seem to bother most people watching the movie that night, but I usually prefer when directors don't insult my intelligence. I have a few more closing thoughts on 'Evelyn' that I'll add when I get to my discussion of Mike Leigh's 'All or Nothing'.

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