Evelyn is an Irish-American film directed by Bruce Beresford, about an Irish father whose wife deserts the family home. Unemployed and having to bring up 3 children, he finds his 2 sons and daughter taken away from him by the state, under the guise of the Irish Children Act, an Irish law which places children in religious institutions when the parents do not have an acceptable income… And so begins an unprecedented struggle to get her children back…
Early 1950s… The Doyle family lives a precarious life in Dublin, struggling to feed their children properly due to a lack of work. Things soon take a turn for the worse when the mother decides to abandon the family home, leaving her husband, Desmond Doyle (Pierce Borsnan), and 3 children still penniless.
Despite many efforts to get out of unemployment, Desmond Doyle fell foul of the “Irish Children Act”, a law allowing the Irish state to place its children in a religious institution, in the absence of a stable income… Powerless, Doyle is deprived of his children against his will, and, totally devastated, he spends his early days making daily visits to the Pub, where he drinks many a pint…
But this depression is short-lived, and Doyle decides to wage a titanic battle to get his children back… With the support of his friends, Doyle meets a lawyer, and decides to challenge the Irish Children Act, even if it means taking on the Irish state, to get his 2 sons back, as well as his daughter, Evelyn…
We’re used to seeing Pierce Brosnan in James Bond-style blockbusters, or in other mushy films where he plays the role of darkly handsome princes charming, but the film Evelyn propels the actor into a role more suited to him, where he now honors his Irish nationality…
He paints a convincing portrait of an Irish father who is attached to his family, a good party-goer, hard-working and stubborn, and who doesn’t hesitate to challenge the puritanical laws of an Ireland bogged down by its own religious institutions.
Moreover, the film does not hesitate to criticize the religious system of the time, revealing to the viewer Catholic convents and schools stuck in doctrines based on physical abuse, psychological humiliation and other forms of mistreatment that the Irish state was careful not to condemn…
One of the film’s successes lies in its rather sympathetic cast. Pierce Brosnan is joined by tenors such as Aidan Quinn (Legends of Autumn, Michael Collins) and Julianna Marguiles (ER), all of whom contribute to the film’s credibility…
The performance of the little girl who plays Evelyn is also very touching: she shines with realistic acting, and carries the film from start to finish.
