"Songcatcher" is a fictional film that was based on the work of several researchers who studied and chronicled the music of Appalachia in the early 20th century. Professor Lily Penleric (Janet McTeer) has come to spend time with her sister, Eleanor. And, when the Professor hears some of the local ballads, she realizes they are treasures...variations on old songs from England and thereabouts that were thought to be lost. So she spends much of the rest of the film gaining the trust of the locals as well as recording and writing down their songs for posterity as well as let outside folks know that there is great beauty and wisdom in the hills. This is complicated by Eleanor and her female lover...something many of the locals would not understand nor appreciate. How this ends up impacting the Professor's work is something you'll have to see...as well her relationship with a handsome local man (Aidan Quinn). And, the picture has a very interesting and unique view of early American feminism.

"Songcatcher" is an incredibly lovely film. The director really managed to convey a great sense of beauty throughout the movie. My only complaint, and it's really NOT a problem with the film itself is that some of the singing is quite beautiful...and some almost made my ears bleed.

By the way, I particularly liked seeing Pat Carroll in the film--she was excellent and she hasn't done a lot of film work in recent years (she's the voice of Ursula from "The Little Mermaid" by the way). Well worth seeing but NOT the sort of picture the average person would watch in the first place, though it does give you a deeper appreciation for the people of this part of America.

Like "The Commitments" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", "Songcatcher" focuses on music in a way that you shouldn't miss. It tells the story of musicologist Lily Penleric (Janet McTeer) who travels to an isolated village in the Appalachians and gets to hear the music of the Scottish-Irish people there in the early 20th century. Can this really be the whole plot of a movie? When the movie has such great music, it definitely can. Because what Lily hears does many things: aside from just being great music, it shows how the people in this village may not be educated or anything like that - and could even be inbred - but they still have their culture. I definitely recommend this movie.

Also starring Aidan Quinn (happy birthday, Aidan!) and Emmy Rossum a few years before she played Sean Penn's daughter in "Mystic River".

What is life for? That's a question that many people throughout the ages have asked. There is no question in the mind of Tom Bledsoe (Aidan Quinn). Life is for enjoying. His idea of enjoying is playing music and drinking corn liquor. I don't know if I can argue with that.

Neither could Lily Penleric (Janet McTeer),Doctor of Musicology, who came up into the mountains to visit her sister Elna (Jane Adams),and discovered music that had not been heard by "outlanders" in hundreds of years. Songs that were originally written in Ireland and Scotland and hidden in the Apppalatian Mountains. She discovered that there was indeed culture among those whom the outlanders considered ignorant, inbred hillbillies, and she was determined to capture and share that culture.

In the process, she learned what life was really all about. It was a beautiful, tender story about people and differences; like the reaction over the discovery of her sister's partner, Harriet (E. Katherine Kerr).

The music was awesome, and this was Emmy Rossum's first movie. I loved her in The Phantom of the Opera, The Day after Tomorrow, and Mystic River; and now add another great performance to the list. I wasn't inclined to see Posiden, but I will make it a point now to see her again.

I have to end with a note about Pat Carroll, who played Viney Butlet. Her career is is old as i am and I am sure that I have probably seen her many times over the years and not known who she was. I will not forget now, as she was the most interesting character in the movie. Brava!