Ailsa

Having won awards for his short film A Stone of the Heart, Paddy Breathnach broke into features with this tale of obsession and indecision. Working from his own short story, screenwriter Joe O'Connor makes liberal use of flashback and off-screen narration to chronicle the passion of young husband Brendan Coyle for Juliette Gruber, the American stranger who moves into a flat in his run-down Dublin townhouse. Rather than empathising with Coyle's torment, it's easier to feel sorry for his deceived wife, Andrea Irvine, and Gruber, who has no idea that he's stealing her mail, let alone fantasising about her. Moody, but ultimately insubstantial.