Set immediately after WWI and focusing gently around the troubles between the English and the Irish in Ireland, this layered saga rewards a viewer genuinely interested in the fate of its protagonist, the Englishman Major Archer (Ian Charleson). Major Archer's own mystifying and repeated "troubles" seem to eventually mirror the political troubles of British-occupied Ireland. And Ian Charleson gives a delicious performance that evokes just such an interest in his fate, no matter how eccentric his surroundings.
With Major Archer as the focus, this film makes wonderful viewing, as we see the British in Ireland through his eyes. And everything that happens to him, and the people around him, can also serve as metaphors of the times.
Major Archer's primary interactions are with a self-absorbed and outdated Englishman, Edward Spencer (played aptly by Ian Richardson) and his eccentric family, and a magnetic and coquettish Irish Catholic named Sarah (Emer Gillespie) whose charms Archer succumbs to. Sympathetic to the Irish cause, Major Archer has antagonists who are exemplified by the young and belligerently British Captain Bolton (Sean Bean). All three protagonists -- Charleson, Richardson, and Gillespie -- play their parts perfectly, and as the sprawling and multi-layered saga finally winds to a close, it feels moving and momentous.
This is Ian Charleson's last screen role, and a delightfully rich one. He plays the mild-mannered yet deep-feeling Major Archer with depth and with pitch-perfect affect. Lovely.
(Note: Americans and other non-Brits would do well to note that the term Sinn Féin is used frequently in the film; it is pronounced "Shin Fayne." This is the radical Irish Republican group, similar to the IRA. The slang term for the group is "Shinners.")
