(1994) Into the insular Irish community of Kilshannon arrives one Edwina Broome (Natasha Richardson), a frisky young widow with an American accent whose British husband (recipient of the Victoria Cross) died of wounds following World War I, some fifteen years earlier. She has purchased a residence on Widow's Peak where bereaved females are "as plentiful as freckles on a redhead," according to Godfrey Doyle-Counihan (Adrian Dunbar), the idle scion ("He's all I have") of Mrs Doyle-Counihan (Joan Plowright), twice-widowed dowager of social prominence.

Following Godfrey's informing her that his mother will insist on her hiring Maddie O'Hara (Rynagh O'Grady) as a maid, the village's own Mata Hari, known for her snooping and gossiping, Edwina complies ("I don't have any secrets"). At the picture show, Mrs Doyle-Counihan invites Edwina to join the ladies on the other side of the aisle ("We keep separate from the towners") where Miss Katherine O'Hare (Mia Farrow), a spinster "poor as a church mouse," also has the privilege of their company.

With his mother's encouragement, Godfrey courts Edwina, taking her to a dancehall where Miss O'Hare and her fond suitor, the dentist Con Clancy (Jim Broadbent), are in attendance. After making a public scene, accusing Edwina of intentionally bumping her, costing her a prize, Katherine persists in her quarrel with Edwina.

At Mrs Doyle-Counihan's urging - "Put yourself in the right and her in the wrong" - Edwina attempts unsuccessfully to make peace with the rude, hateful woman whom Godfrey admits is mad and detests the English. Edwina later suspects that Katherine is responsible for damaging her car and writing graffiti ("English go home"). What is the source of such malice?

For her part, Katherine expresses her view to Clancy that Edwina is not what she claims to be, rather Mrs Broome has come to Kilshannon to commit murder. At the regatta on Godfrey's yacht, wanting to overtake Katherine and Clancy's smaller boat, Edwina eggs on her fiancé: "Then open her up, my future husband!" Forced aground, Katherine repeats her imprecation with a prediction that she will be Edwina's intended victim.

During the festivities at the rally at the end of the regatta, an inebriated British naval officer recognizes Edwina, mentioning their acquaintanceship previously on the French Riviera. At home Edwina demands of her compromised maid to speak of what was never to be talked about: "What makes her one of them?"

Director John Irvin's humorous, suspenseful mystery, from a story and screenplay by playwright Hugh Leonard, is an elaborately knotted plot of twists and surprises, reminiscent of Sleuth and The Sting.

Following the canon's reading of the third banns of Edwina and Godfrey's engagement to be married, Katherine's 30-year-old secret is revealed through an anonymous letter, ruining her relationship with Clancy; in revenge she exposes Edwina as an imposter and former inhabitant of a brothel. Though Mrs Doyle-Counihan and Godfrey, among many others, witness Katherine's being shanghaied on her own boat, without a body the authorities cannot declare a murder, so Mrs Doyle-Counihan rouses the townsfolk in a campaign to have Edwina tried and hanged.

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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