After an unsuccessful audition for entry into a respected New York music conservatory, violinist Finley Sinclair (Rose Reid – I’m Not Ashamed) is lost. Not sure what to do next, she decides to follow in her deceased brother’s footsteps and do a semester abroad in Ireland. Wanting the exact experience which her brother raved of, Finley even stays with the same billet family – The Callaghans – Nora (Fiona Bell – from television’s Taggart), Sean (Ciaran McMahon – appeared in episodes of Game of Thrones and Vikings) and their daughter Emma (Saoirse-Monica Jackson – from television’s Derry Girls), who run a B&B in a small coastal town.
While on the flight over Finley falls asleep on the shoulder of a young man. That young man turns out to be megastar Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre – from television’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). The two get along…like oil and water. Unfortunately, this is not the end of them as Beckett is staying at the Callaghan’s because he filming a movie in the small town. Little by little, though, what began as a dislike of each other turns into something quite different. Though the roadblocks for the two young people are not done.
As is typically so when a film is made in Ireland the scenery here is beautiful. Very green, hilly, rural, filled with churchyards and old castles. Almost every film ever made in Ireland is like a travel ad for the country filling the viewer with the desire to get on a plane to go there.
As for the more technical aspects of the film like the script, direction, score, and acting they are not up to the beauty of Ireland. Don’t take this as a recommendation not to watch the film, however. Yes, the romantic comedy is like many others you have probably seen before. Totally predictable. Yet inoffensive. A kind of Hallmark Channel or W romance. Rather cheesy, but somehow cute. The type of film you would watch on a Sunday afternoon during the winter while a big storm rages outside.
A surprise treat here is a small part for Vanessa Redgrave. She plays an old grumpy woman in a home who has a secret which has separated her from her family and kept her isolated from the residents of the town most of her life. Always wonderful seeing her in a film.