ABOUT THE BOOK

Four Letters of Love by Niall Wiliams

In love everything changes, and continues changing all the time. There is no stillness, no stopped clock of the heart in which the moment of happiness holds forever, but only the constant whirring forward motion of desire and need …

Nicholas Coughlan and Isabel Gore are meant for each other they just don’t know it yet. Though each has found both heartache and joy in the wild Irish landscape, their paths are yet to cross. But as God, ghosts, fate and the sheer power of true love pull Nicholas and Isabel together, so too does life threaten to tear them apart.

FILM REVIEW

Four Letters of Love

Classification: M (mature theme)
Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes
Director: Polly Steele
Cast includes Helena Bonham Carter, Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne
Genre: romance, drama

Each evening I watch the television news: war, famine, violence, man’s inhumanity to man.

Recently, I went to see Four Letters of Love on the big screen: lust, young love, mature relationships, mysticism and implausibility. I loved it.

It’s a film that has divided viewers into Wow! and Ugh!

The story is set in the 1970s and moves between Dublin and an island off the west coast of Ireland. The movie is adapted from the 1997 international bestseller by Niall Williams.

Four Letters of Love ticks all that I want from a film: an absorbing story; appropriate music; editing that aids our interpretation; brilliant acting; cinematography that amazes, and a director who has a clear vision.

Oh, yes, don’t get too concerned. We are shown THE painting close to the end of the film.

I was seduced by the magnificent scenery, the stunning cast and the uplifting story.

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Clive Hodges