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Rating:  - A wonderful film
We truely love this film!
However: to receive a DVD for Zone 1 is VERY FRUSTRATING to say the least, when living in Europe with Code Zone 2 which means we can only watch the DVD on a PC and not on our regular TV using our Sony DVD Player.
Especially when we like this film it is a disappointment that it will only run on Zone 1, alas!
Rating: - Never Try To Fool Children. They Expect Nothing And Therefore See Everything.
Frances and her family are struggling to deal with the death of her brother Joseph. Joseph was the original believer of the fairies; he spoke of them drew them and passed on his love to his sister. Shortly before his death his parents felt it was time for him to grow up and forbad him to talk of the fairies. Frances still walks down to their creek in the hopes to see the fairies that seemed to have left with her brother.
When Elsie's father goes missing in France during WWI, she leaves Africa to join her cousin Frances, and her aunt Polly and uncle Arthur, in England. Elsie is the breath of fresh air this family desperately needs. Elsie shares Frances' love of fairies and refuses to believe that they left when Joseph passed away. It isn't long before both the girls discover their winged friends.
While Polly and Arthur both try to dissuade the girls from their beliefs in fairies, Polly at the same time is searching for proof of Angels. She is seeking some comfort and peace with her son's death. That's when Elsie suggests that she and Frances photograph the fairies to help her aunt believe.
When their photographs reach the public, these two little girls embark on a magnificent journey of discovery, skepticism and faith; making believers out of the biggest doubters. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini play intricate roles in the girls' lives.
I watched this movie with my 4 year old son and husband; I was concerned it was going to be a little too old for my son, and a little too young for my husband. We all loved it. The acting, by everyone, is superb and the two little girls are enchanting. This movie was beyond magical, beyond beautiful, beyond heartwarming. It is a powerful tale of faith, joy, innocence and fantasy. More importantly it shows us how believing in something, no matter how fanciful, can help to mend and bring peace to wounded hearts.
So the next time you walk in your yard or work in your gardens, be on the lookout for your fairies... You might even want to leave them a little cake.
Fairy Houses ... Everywhere! (Fairy Houses) (The Fairy Houses Series) (The Fairy Houses Series)
The Secret of Roan Inish
Rating:  - Lovely family movie
My girls (ages 5 and 9) loved this movie. It was a visual treat. I would have loved to see more of the fairies. They were beautiful. They made me believe.
Rating: - Fairy Tale - A True Story
The imagination of children is wonderful. That's why I refuse to fully grow up. Wouldn't it be wonderfully if there really were fairies?
Rating: - Delusion and delight
One of the negative reviews complained that the movie fails to reveal that the photographs were a hoax and suggests that it portrayed the fairies as real.
I never got that impression, but rather that their depiction was used as a cinematic device of seeing the world as the two young girls saw it.
For me, the real delight of the movie is the contrast between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini. Houdini, who exposed charlatans and spiritualists, recognized that the two young girls got swept up into a sensationalistic story over an innocent prank, while Doyle, grieving over the loss of his son in WWI, lost the objectivity of his rigorously logical alter ego, Sherlock Holmes.
It was the grief and suffering caused by a horrible war that sparked the hysteria over the photographs, with people reaching out for something pure, innocent and beautiful. Houdini, as well as the filmmakers, recognized that, and artfully refrained from bulldozing over innocence with the sharp edges of fact.
One of the daughters of the late conductor Bruno Walter said in an interview that their father never allowed them backstage at an opera until they were grown. He explained later that he didn't want to destroy the magic for them.
Houdini would have understood.
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