The Outcasts

Mystery and magic from the mists of Erin in which a shy and awkward girl, Maura (Ryan), finds friendship and maybe more with an itinerant, half-legendary fiddler called Scarf Michael (Lally) on the night of a rural wedding. Thereafter, Maura is no longer a figure of fun and abuse, but a woman suspected of black magic by the superstitious villagers. The film is strong on 'atmosphere' (which means it pisses with rain most of the time and everyone struggles through the bog on their way to various dramatic encounters), but predictably slack in dialogue and characterisation. Mary Ryan works hard at making Maura a sympathetic central character, but this is another 'romantically Irish' film that has little of the power and articulacy of Neil Jordan.