FOUR LETTERS OF LOVE

THREE STARS A man quits his job and head to the coast to paint. Divine intervention has set off an unlikely chain of events.

PERIOD DRAMA IRELAND English #FOURLETTERSOFLOVE Starring Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham-Carter

In some ways FOUR LETTERS OF LOVE aspires to be an Irish Wuthering Heights, all billowing romance of chaste emotion but with a healthy dose of a new dawn. And it could be were it braver in its choices, stronger in its conviction and served with a lot less syrup. Adapted by Niall Williams from his own novel, it wears its literary roots on its sleeve: voice-overs, poetic asides and long-winded monologues abound.

Director Polly Steele and cinematographer Damien Elliott turn the Irish coast into an AI postcard where the light is never wrong, and the skies roll like deep blue velvet. And all that beauty becomes complicit because when your visuals are flawless, there’s nowhere for the voice-overs, poetic asides and long-winded monologues to hide.

FOUR LETTERS OF LOVE kicks off with Pierce Brosnan who, convinced that God has given him a higher purpose, abandons the civil service in a shaft of light (yes, really). He grabs his easel, leaves his family and heads into the countryside to take up painting. 

The narrative jumps back and forth between two parallel lives: Nicholas, orphaned by his father’s epiphany, and island-born Isabel, torn from home (the loving arms of Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne) by tragedy and convent schooling. The youngsters circle, wait, write letters and (surprise!) eventually meet.

If there’s a starring role among the metaphysical (ghosts, omens, divine intervention) it’s sentimentality but this is a player that never fully commits. Or convinces. By the time Nicholas and Isabel get it together we’ve lost interest. And not because we’re hard of heart, it’s that neither Steele nor Williams have really given us a reason to care, absorbed as they are in the voice-overs, poetic asides and long-winded monologues. 

If you like your romance set in drudgery and set against unbeatable scenery there’ll be something here. But if you demand emotional propulsion or characters who surprise, you’re in the wrong cinema. There are moments - watching Byrne and Bonham-Carter together is a rare treat - but for the most part these are letters you’ll never read again.

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