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Simply A Masterpiece

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Overlooking a tiny Irish village is "Widows' Peak," an area inhabited by a tight-knit group of well-off widows. The doyen of the group is the venerable Mrs. Doyle-Counihan (Joan Plowright), who keeps the ladies in her circle on a short leash. An odd member of their society is Miss O'Hare (Mia Farrow), the only unmarried lady to be accepted as an intimate. When a flamboyant, young American woman (Natasha Richardson) moves in, she shakes up the town by quickly stealing the heart of Mrs. Doyle-Counihan's son and for no apparent reason, making a enemy of Miss O'Hare.Billed as a comedy/mystery/thriller, this very odd movie falls short on all counts. While it does paint a charming picture of Irish village life in the 1920s, both the plot and the local dialect are nearly incomprehensible and the ending is too much of a twist. Plowright (widow of Laurence Olivier) is wonderful as the foolish grande dame who thinks she knows everything. Farrow, however, is woefully miscast. Her Irish accent comes and goes and she looks like a spaced-out twenty-something, which hurts the ending. Richardson is simply annoying as the pushy and mysterious American. None of the characters, in fact, are likable in the least and I didn't care about any of them - with the exception of the local dentist, played to comic perfection by Jim Broadbent.This is a confusing, tedious, and disappointing movie that should have been so much better, considering the cast.

The 1990s saw an interesting resurgence of very British comedies set in or around the turn of the century, possibly with the success of Merchant-Ivory outings or the universally acclaimed ENCHANTED APRIL. All in all, this one came and went and barely received little more than a nod here and there but proves that good -- even great -- films don't need to be Oscar-touted and have a grandiose feel.As a matter of fact, like the Irish town of Kilshannon where the story is set, WIDOW'S PEAK is intimate and small scale. It tells the tale of a clique of widows who are all manners, social rules and regulations, led by Mrs. Doyle Couninhan (Joan Plowright in full matriarch mode), presiding over the town like a sinister spider. Miss O'Hare (Mia Farrow) is not a widow but has a past, and this past comes to taunt her once Edwina Broome (Natasha Richardson) comes into town: immediately they rub each other the wrong way and every encounter escalates in intensity, with each of the women put in a position where we sympathize with them at times, and then we don't (since both behave in less than noble ways), which leaves us unsure of where this is all going -- but enjoying the suspenseful ride nevertheless. While reviewing this film could reveal major secrets, it's enough to say that when the pay-off comes around, it's completely satisfying. All three female leads perform their roles without out-shining the other, but for once, Farrow doesn't act like she's an automated mold straight out of the Woody Allen factory of actors. A delicious comedy, one of those small-yet-hidden gems of films that are worth a try, and worth seeing as a companion piece to A MONTH BY THE LAKE.

I'm feeling a bit silly here, but I thought Natasha Richardson was British. In this film, she has an American accent that sounds very cultivated, although I couldn't tell whether it was fake or simply voice training.I do like this movie, though, in fact I like it very much! Natasha was wonderful despite my confusion about her accent, and Mia Farrow was quite good, although it was hard to really see her as plain as she was in this film. It was fun to watch, though, and has you thinking at the end. Joan Plowright was superb, as usual.9/10.

Widow's Peak is a sugar coated predictable girls' movie that did not motivate or excite me in the least. I just sat and kind of stared at the screen until it was done. I guess it did have its moments in humor, but I'm a guy and I need more action.