Love & Savagery
Starring Allan Hawco and Sarah Greene. Rating not available. Opens Friday, February 12, at the Cinemark Tinseltown
A bland story is nicely told in Love & Savagery, with that florid title promising more than it can possibly deliver.
The name is taken from a book of poetry by Newfoundlander Des Walsh, and a whiff of self-ennobling autobiography marks the screenplay he wrote for this adaptation, directed by long-time collaborator John N. Smith (The Boys of St. Vincent). Certainly you find that in the strong, silent hero who takes his lumps in the cause of romance and geology.
Said hero is Michael (adequate Allan Hawco), a leather-jacketed Maritime academic who treks to rural Ireland in the late 1960s, ostensibly to examine unique rock formations but also to explore his Celtic heritage and maybe taste something even sweeter than Irish ale. The latter comes in the form of fair Cathleen (impressive newcomer Sarah Greene), a barmaid who’s not quite as available as she seems.
This orphan girl is coveted by a local lout (Dylan Smith) who is soon leading a campaign to drive the mild-mannered foreigner off the island. Worse, Cathleen has promised herself to a nearby convent, Jesus having been the most eligible bachelor until our poetry-reading Canuck showed up. Considering all the come-hither looks-and occasional rough-ups-he’s soon getting, Michael can’t be blamed for drinking more than a wee dram of dark confusion.
Perhaps unique to its time and place, this set-up is challenging to its participants but not terribly interesting to us. Fortunately, there are some memorable scenes featuring older players like Canada’s Martha Burns as a surprisingly canny mother superior, and Irish stage actor Macdara Ó Fatharta as a sympathetic fisherman.
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