Nora

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting at times but .... sometimes disturbing
Review: Truly it was a very good movie. Ewan McGregor one of my all-time favorite actors and veryyy goodlooking i might add was extremely good in this film. I think this film is for movie lovers because you have to really WATCH it not just try to watch it and be rather confused. My friend watched it with me and hated it and said I ruined her life for renting it. But I can watch the movies that are really boring to people. And I really liked this film. Ewan was so great in this and had a really strong presence and even though...and some of the love scenes disturb me to this day ..it was very good and well made ( well because Ewan made it of course!)

Rating:
Summary: Pathetically shallow film
Review: What a travesty this thing is! More of a blend of As The World Turns & one of John Ford's more embarassing quasi-Irish efforts than anything having to do with Joyce & any part of his existence. There is no passion, no intensity & ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE OF LANGUAGE (in a movie purporting to be about James Joyce!). The performances are shallow & contemporary, which is probably as much as most movie audiences will ever ask of it. Shame!!!

Rating:
Summary: Earthy and Sensual
Review: When I first read the reviews on this movie, I planned to skip it but than I read Flicjunkies review and decided to rent it. I am glad I did. This movie kinda grows on you in an artsy way. It is about the relationship between James Joyce and his partner Nora. The thing I liked most was the earthiness Nora possesses. She is not so much beauty but just this real creative seductiveness that comes across in her personality. The way she speaks her mind and feels her emotions. The movie focuses more on Nora and James rather than on James works. There are some readings but the tumultous ups and downs of James and his jealousies and imaginings having to do with Nora is mainly the body of this work. The singing done by the two actors is just wonderful! I am going to see if I can find the soundtrack for the film and purchase it. The openess of Nora, the singing, and the beautiful stunning views of villas and picturesque images are such a worthwhile journey to take. I am glad I read Flicjunkies review.

Lisa Nary

Rating:
Summary: Well-Intentioned Film, But Failed to Capture the Heart
Review: Writers' life fascinates moviemakers. We had "Tom and Viv" dealing with T S Eliot; and recently "Total Eclipse," too. Now we have a story of James Joyce and his wife Nora.

To be precise, Nora was not legally a wife during the time of her life the film depicts (though much later they married in 1931), but the point is clear. The film is about Nora, strong-willed woman whose presence is supposed to influence the life of Joyce, and vice versa. And her name happens to remind us of Ibsen's heroine. As to describing a strong woman in a male-dominating time and place, the film succeeds, thanks to Susan Lynch's deft performance, which vividly realizes the invincible will of a woman whose presense tends to be overshadowed by the great writer of the 20th century.

However, the flaws of the film seem to obliterate its merits. The greatest problem is that we are not allowed to know much about the nature of the relationships between Joyce and Nora. In short, what part of Joyce, a man, attracted her so much? During the tempestuous relationships between the two leads, there is few key-moment that accounts for the intense love-hate emotional ride between them; so, we watch they love, they fight, they part, and they reconcile, but no development of the characters is seen. Consequently, the film looks too episodic; sporadically engages our mind, but jumps to the next scene without a reasonable step of the story. It is regrettable, because there is still interesting facts that are introduced during the film -- for example, Joyce briefly was involved in movie theater business -- but these facts are soon forgotten, never fully explained. What is worse, Joyce's complex relationships with Ireland, which should never be ignored when we talk about him, fails to be fully explored in spite of the good use of period costume and location. The couple leave Ireland to go to Italy, the film surely shows, but you cannot describe an image of Joyce, who had deep, complicated feelings towards Ireland, without convincingly showing the cultural difference between the two countries. The last point is the weakest part of "Nora."

I think Ewan McGregor is not bad though fans of Joyce might think otherwise, considering him a little miscast. After all, life of a writer is a difficult topic to handle: on screen you have to convince yourself as a writer while we audience usually don't have any knowledge about what kind of a guy a writer could be. We can imagine soldiers, lawyers, even spies, but the image of a writer is at best, very vague. Moreover, as for the film in point, Ewan Mcgregor has already established his image in "Episode I" and Joyce himself also has established his own. I admire moviemakers' courage to tackle this topic, but still the film leaves much to be desired.