HEAR MY SONG (1991) *** The plot demands a lot of different sides from Adrian Dunbar, and he delivers...no, I'm not sure I like him either, but that's the test. He's by far not the best one in the cast-that would be Tara Fitzgerald if its not Ned Beatty-but a character like him wouldn't care anyway. They aren't the only good ones either, you have to see Shirley Anne Field, William Hootkins, and Harold Berens too, and all the elderly Irish drinkers. The film surely says a lot between the pubs and theatres and veterinary clinics, but the one...the thing that can be said without imposing the unnatural limitations of symbolic words an their inherent reason, is that it's ok to get hopelessly and shamelessly sentimental in a film, so long as you've covered all this other turf first (decadence in its many forms; aesthetic, moral, carnal). Sentimental is healthy, sentimental is great, sentimental is real...but it's the culmination of a thing, rather than the intro. So Beatty's a tough opera singer, Tara's a girl who...you want her to get what she wants, even if it's Dunbar. Dunbar (in writing cap) and Peter Chelsom are no more shy than any of them, when it comes to twirling out a surprise...even if you thought you saw it coming all along, and were feeling quite proud of yourself for doing so. Yeah, maybe you have seen too many movies, my friend, but don't get them confused with maps if you haven't seen this one.
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