RUN OF THE COUNTRY

One of two 1995 films from British director Peter Yates that shared strong thematic and story similarities (the other was Roommates), this drama intertwined political and generational conflict for an unusual tale of teen romance in Ireland. Albert Finney stars as a policeman in a tiny, boring County Cavan village just south of the border between northern and southern Ireland. Nothing much happens there, and the sergeant prays for one murder that he can solve and make himself famous. His real concern, however, is that his relationship with his 18-year-old son Danny (Matt Keeslar) has been strained since the recent death of his wife from a heart attack during a domestic quarrel. Danny blames his father for his mother's death and resents his father's bullying ways, so he moves in with his no-account best friend Prunty (Anthony Brophy). Danny then falls in love with Annagh (Victoria Smurfit), a beautiful, red-haired northerner, and their relationship, which becomes sexual, brings Danny's conflict with his bigoted father to a boil. Novelist Shane Connaughton, who also wrote My Left Foot (1989) and The Playboys (1992), adapted the script from his novel.