Others have given details of the play on which this film, 'Dancing at Lughnasa," is based. I too think that the movie has a stagy feel to it. That doesn't take away from the story – what there is of it; but it does speak to the lower technical quality of the film. The country shots do seem patched to the set scenes. I would like to have seen the stage play.

The acting is quite good all around. No role was exceptional, but all were very good. I've enjoyed reading the different comments of reviewers, especially where some see the family as ordinary while others see it as exceptional. My take is that this is an ordinary family in the sense of relationships, but a somewhat eccentric family in their circumstances. For instance, all of the girls are unmarried and living together. And, a much older brother priest returns from the missions to retire at home, but with dementia setting in and some sort of mixed bag of spirituality that we can't quite grasp or figure out. Did he have a reverse conversion? Did he become pagan instead of converting Africans to Christianity?

Whether in the movie, in the original play or in both, this point weakens the story. Unanswered questions like this distract the viewer. So, we miss the flow of the movie which centers around the five sisters. Another nagging distraction is a question of the parents. What happened to them? How long have then been dead? What about them – they are never mentioned that I can recall. Kate (Meryl Streep) seems to be no older than 40, with the youngest girl, Rose, mot much older than 20. But Father Jack is clearly well over 60. If they all had the same parents, their mother would have borne children for 40 years. Not impossible, but certainly exceptional. At one point, the narrator (Michael Mundy grown) makes a comment about this, but it's another piece that leaves viewers with a question – and another distraction.

Finally, this is a family of girls who are very close-knit. They are different individuals, and they have quarrels and disagreements. But we see nothing so deep that it would rend this family apart. They care deeply for one another. When they dance together spontaneously, they share a common moment of joy and fun. The story ends on a sad note, which is OK for a good movie or story. But, in this case, we don't know why Agnes and Rose just sneaked off together one night, never more to be seen or heard from. There was no apparent rift or irreparable rending of the family. The grown Michael expresses the surprise of all the rest of them. Two sisters just flee a family circle of siblings they have been so close with all their lives? It's another question that leaves the film wanting.

Although there is no real plot to Dancing At Lughnasa it's a character study set in time and place, the time and place of a small town in James Craig's Ulster of 1936 is perfectly realized and filmed. Dancing At Lughnasa has the look and feel of The Quiet Man although the subject is far more serious.

Five Irish sisters who for one reason or another have not taken a husband live hand to mouth only supported by eldest sister Meryl Streep's meager salary as a schoolteacher. The rest do odd jobs and survive the best they can. The other four sisters are Brid Brennan, Sophia Thompson, Catherine McCormick, and Kathy Burke. McCormick has had a child out of wedlock played by Darrell Johnston and the sisters are raising him. Meryl has the steady job and she's the oldest and she bosses the others. Brid Brennan doesn't take anything off her, but the others more or less follow her lead.

Into the mix comes their older brother Michael Gambon who is a priest who is showing signs of what we would now call Alzheimer's Disease. He was a missionary in Africa, but his order has retired him. Also making an appearance is Rhys Ifans who is the father young Mr. Johnston. He's not staying long he's going off to Spain to fight for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. He's an interesting character because in Ireland, North or South, there would many who would more than likely fight for the Fascist military insurgency as the Catholic Church was a staunch bastion of support.

In Ifills case though in his defense, jobs are not to be had in that country which was only slowly recovering from its war for independence and the civil war that followed. A reason, not the best of one, for him not staying around to help raise his kid.

Eugene O'Neill could have written Dancing At Lughnasa it has his pessimistic style and its characters are deep if the plot is almost non-existent. Of course O'Neill never did create really good female characters except for the mother in Long Day's Journey Into Night.

Brian Friel's play was originally presented by the Abbey Theater in Dublin who some will argue is the best repertory company in the world. It later moved to Broadway where only Brid Brennan repeats her role for the film. That was probably a good thing because she won a Tony Award for Best Actress and the play itself won a Tony Award.

Watching this you will not soon forget the Mundys of Ballybeg.

OK, we should all know by now that Meryl Streep is one of the few Americans who can do a believable accent. So, she makes use of that ability here as a woman in 1930s Ireland. She and her sisters spend their days making the most of life.

Some of us may think that there are a few too many stories about Irish people making the most of life. Maybe so, but really, who doesn't like making the most of life? And after all the terrible things that have happened to the Irish, do we really wish to slam them like that? So anyway, "Dancing at Lughnasa" isn't any kind of great movie, but worth seeing, if only once. Also starring Rhys Ifans (who later starred in "Little Nicky", "The Shipping News" and "Human Nature").