The Sun, the Moon and the Stars

Sulky teenager Shelley (Elaine Cassidy) and her know-all younger sister, Dee (Aisling Corcoran), are shared by recently divorced couple Monica (Gina Moxley) and Tom (Vinny Murphy). After being passed over for promotion at her bank, Monica resigns and takes the kids off on summer vacation. Shelley, who wants her parents to get back together, secretly leaves a message for her father to join them as usual. At the resort, Monica falls in with Abbie (Angie Dickinson), an American marine biologist, who slowly gets the uptight Dubliner to openup. Also trying to get Monica to open up, for different reasons, is the laid-back young Pat (Jason Donovan), caretaker of the holiday chalets. Meanwhile, Shelley, who’s into black magic, starts sticking pins into an effigy of Abbie, who she’s convinced is an evil witch and a bad influence on Mom. Though the mother (beautifully played in a rainbow of moods by Moxley) emerges as the heart and soul of the picture, the loose storyline gives all characters a chance to register, especially Shelley, the well-meaning but grouchy teen, finely limned by Cassidy as child-going-on-woman. Donovan, almost unrecognizable under stubble and long locks, is good as Monica’s entree to another life, and Dickinson, playing a character in her early 60s, brings some dignity to an initially out-of-place role. Spicing the whole pie with some terrific comic timing is young Corcoran, as Shelley’s bratty sis.