Nora

Rating:
Summary: Depends What You Know Before You Watch
Review: If you are knowledgeable about James Joyce prior to seeing this film, you will likely have a stronger opinion of the work one way or the other. If you know Joyce as an author only, how much you enjoy this film will be limited to the screen experience alone. I fall in to the latter category, so, "Nora", was a film for me and not a movie to be compared with what I knew about the writer.

Ewan McGregor plays the author and Susan Lynch plays his muse. The movie is primarily about their relationship and how it effects the creation of his work. The time frame is taken to approximately 1914 when his work, "The Dubliners", was finally published. Joyce had eventually imposed exile from Ireland upon himself as his work was considered far too graphic for publication. The physicality of his work was often based/inspired by his life with Nora, and the very intimate and detailed letters they would write. The letters were facilitated by Joyce occasionally abandoning his wife and children in Trieste while he returned home and came under the influence of his friends.

Joyce as portrayed in this film is difficult to like. He is portrayed as a man who is impulsive and out of control. If this means he routinely leaves Nora after subjecting here to the most foul of accusations, so be it. That his accusations are the result of nothing but his paranoia only makes Nora suffer all the more for offenses she never committed Joyce will then swing wildly in the opposite direction asking that she describe encounters with men before they met.

James Joyce often appears when the top books of the 20th Century are listed, many also find his work exceptionally difficult to make their way through. If this film is at all accurate, we have Nora to thank for staying with him, and not only inspiring but saving his work. What he would have become without her is a counter factual argument that never can be known.

Rating:
Summary: FOUND NORA BY ACCIDENT
Review: It was the 21 of December and I was busy into baking and wrapping but wanted something wonderful to watch on TV while I was buzzing around my house. On the Sundance Channel I found NORA and ended up sitting down and watching the entire movie...it was spellbinding. I did not know much about Joyce before this movie but it certainly makes you want to search for info on his life...Pat Murphy directing was flawless and the actors so suited to the roles. The photography was incredible. Wonderful movie - make sure you watch it.

Rating:
Summary: FOUND NORA BY ACCIDENT
Review: It was the 21 of December and I was busy into baking and wrapping but wanted something wonderful to watch on TV while I was buzzing around my house. On the Sundance Channel I found NORA and ended up sitting down and watching the entire movie...it was spellbinding. I did not know much about Joyce before this movie but it certainly makes you want to search for info on his life...Pat Murphy directing was flawless and the actors so suited to the roles. The photography was incredible. Wonderful movie - make sure you watch it.

Rating:
Summary: Literary Genius and his Muse
Review: James Joyce (Ewan McGregor) finds his spiritual and sexual equal and partner in life in Nora Barnacle (Susan Lynch) when a young man in Dublin. Although he is a university student and she a maid at the local hotel, the two become lovers against the advise of Joyce's friends who lust after Nora themselves. Joyce convinces Nora to join him in Italy where he has a teaching position. The two begin their lives together living beyond their means, dressing fashionably, and fighting while raising children. Nora is anything but a quiet professor's wife, she is the life force that motivates him. Joyce, one of the major literary geniuses of the 20th century is revealed through the film that explores the volatile relationship between the couple. Susan Lynch won the Best Actress award at the Dublin Film Festival for her performance as the earthy muse whose presence was as much a torture to Joyce as inspiration. Ewan McGregor, in his first adult leading man role, proves he has matured as an actor of solid talent and sensitivity in his role as the jealous, insecure, yet brilliant writer. Shot on location in Ireland and Italy, Nora is a small independent film produced by McGregor's company, Natural Nylon, and likely to be overlooked by most audiences. However, if solid acting, adult story lines. and turn-of-the-century costume biopics are your cup of tea, this video is worth the price of purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: Nora was a fantastic movie. Not really knowing what to expect when I watched it, I was suprised by what the movie was all about. There was immense passion and jealousy in this movie that made a spectacular combination. Ewan McGregor was wonderful, as always. He did a great job at portraying James Joyce, he fit the part well.

Rating:
Summary: For James-Joyce-philes only...
Review: The namesake of the movie was the wife of the Irish writer, James Joyce. The film is an idealized period pice about their relationship.
Apart fom being one of the twentieth centuries most influential writers, Joyce was also one of the most cerebral. Nora was his complement-a salty, earthy, uneducated, unrepressed Irish girl. I don't think the film brought out the contrast between the two, enough. In Nora, the church, intellect, and Victorian cursed Joyce found the passionate, lusty, unrepressed Ireland that he felt should have been. Cerebral literary critics like to think Nora was a major source of Joyce's inspiritation.
The matrimonial issue of what movie to rent, is what will I and the Missus both like enough? With the Missus, the words boring and Irish movie usually occur in the same breath. I warned her this would be a REAL boring Irish movie.
The first half held it's own. I detected interest on the Missus' part, and she wouldn't know James Joyce from somebody at the saloon on the corner. As much as she denies it, she is always drawn in by a strong female role. The middle and later parts of the film get into details of James's and Nora's life in Continental Europe. It is not very dramatic, at least not for me.
What's of interst in James Joyce is what went on inside his head, but that is hard to show in a movie! It was by marriage to Nora that James tried to complete himself.
I think that Nora's character was done a little too stiff, a little too Victorian proper. I did get a real sense of a strong back-boned woman, in the way that Irish women can be.

I could say much more, but that's enough...

Rating:
Summary: Squeezing Out Sparks
Review: The on-screen version of Nora & James Joyce's stormy life is a fascinating character study. The cinematography is excellent as both the pastoral scenery of Ireland & Italy plus the amazingly deft lighting of the film lend mood and accent. The DVD version doesn't add tremendously to either the VCR or theatrical release, but is adequate. Ewan McGregor as Joyce is a bookish guy with a nice voice. His tantrums against Nora came as a surprise to me, rather than seeing a build in jealousy, McGregor just kind of lets Joyce explode and retract. Susan Lynch's performance is stellar, a tour de force. The earthy half-smile of satisfaction is so intriguing as she paws and scratches her way to romance. Nora comes alive in this portrayal as well-matched for the moody explosive Joyce. If the film were better known, we'd be comparing theirs to the Burton-Taylor screen spats of George and Martha. The sexual content of the film seems justified as we see James & Nora sqeezing out sparks, the tie that binds them. "Nora" is passionate and stormy, well worth an evening's viewing. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Not interesting on its own
Review: The story intriqued me. However, not knowing much about James Joyce, I was confused at what all the hub-bub was.

To me this was a story of a very troubled couple. The man James Joyce a soon to be famous writer in his earlier years, horribly insecure. The woman Nora Barnacle, a willful sexually risky young woman of her time, with a troubled past. They meet on the street and not being of the same "class" initially the relationship is very uneven. Soon however, they run off to Italy to escape not only both their pasts, but the puritanical restricts of Irish society of the day.

As their relationship is fierce, so is its ups and downs. They have children and James Joyce being a struggling writer takes much of his failures to heart and drowns them in the bottle. Needless to say this does not improve things. They are often forced to rely on family for support.

A bigger twist is placed in the relationship when James is forced to go back to Dublin for financial reasons to support the family. The already insecure man, is rattled by his friends attempt to meddle with his relationship with the former maid, now the mother of his two children. Once they make up they find a peculiar way of mitigating their distance, by writing torrid letters to one another. These letters apparently now part of James Joyce's writing.

Soon however, when James returns to Italy, he riles things up locally and Nora leaves him to return to Ireland.

The story continues.

I found this hard to understand at times, you never really have a clue who James Joyce is from the movie. I guess it is assumed you know. I don't. What triggers the initial attraction is also unexplained. Also surprising is the forwardness of Nora, so early in a budding relationship. Much is left very open. You don't see why Nora puts up with James, he is very cold to her and often very obnoxious. It seems more a sexual obsession for both. Needless to say, both come across as very self-centered and immature throughout the whole of the movie.

I gave it 3 stars because I felt things were not tied up well. The acting was well done, but the screenplay was lacking.

Rating:
Summary: Not interesting on its own
Review: The story intriqued me. However, not knowing much about James Joyce, I was confused at what all the hub-bub was.

To me this was a story of a very troubled couple. The man James Joyce a soon to be famous writer in his earlier years, horribly insecure. The woman Nora Barnacle, a willful sexually risky young woman of her time, with a troubled past. They meet on the street and not being of the same "class" initially the relationship is very uneven. Soon however, they run off to Italy to escape not only both their pasts, but the puritanical restricts of Irish society of the day.

As their relationship is fierce, so is its ups and downs. They have children and James Joyce being a struggling writer takes much of his failures to heart and drowns them in the bottle. Needless to say this does not improve things. They are often forced to rely on family for support.

A bigger twist is placed in the relationship when James is forced to go back to Dublin for financial reasons to support the family. The already insecure man, is rattled by his friends attempt to meddle with his relationship with the former maid, now the mother of his two children. Once they make up they find a peculiar way of mitigating their distance, by writing torrid letters to one another. These letters apparently now part of James Joyce's writing.

Soon however, when James returns to Italy, he riles things up locally and Nora leaves him to return to Ireland.

The story continues.

I found this hard to understand at times, you never really have a clue who James Joyce is from the movie. I guess it is assumed you know. I don't. What triggers the initial attraction is also unexplained. Also surprising is the forwardness of Nora, so early in a budding relationship. Much is left very open. You don't see why Nora puts up with James, he is very cold to her and often very obnoxious. It seems more a sexual obsession for both. Needless to say, both come across as very self-centered and immature throughout the whole of the movie.

I gave it 3 stars because I felt things were not tied up well. The acting was well done, but the screenplay was lacking.

Rating:
Summary: Real Life Can Be Boring
Review: This movie shows a glipse into the life of author James Joyce, his muse and love Nora, and their stormy relationship and "so-called" love. I had heard little of Joyce before purchasing this film, and was interesting in learning a little about his life. I knew it would be somewhat intense from what I read about it. Instead, the movie proved to be dull... as real life can be at times (which explains the title for my review). I look to movies to be entertained, inspired, or be taught something new. It only made me realize how good my life is. This movie is a raw portrayal of sex, drinking, and mad jealousy. No romancing, no sugar coating, no BS. If you want to watch real life at its rawest, the movie is for you. But, don't purchase if you think this movie will be similar to Shakespeare in Love (Also a movie about an author and his muse). You will be very disappointed. Honestly, I got the film to see Ewan McGregor. It's not one of his best films, but if you are a Ewan fan you might want to check it out.