9/10
a gem
20 August 1999
At the time of release and now this film is tragically undervalued. The reviews were merely making fun of the rather unconvincing fairies rather than looking at the film as a whole. In fact I was not tempted to see it at all but ended up watching it while doing work experience as an usherette in a local cinema.

The fairies are not the latest in technology but it is a small yet intensely beautiful and haunting film that I suspect could only be made outside of Hollywood. It is a film about grief, faith and mysticism. The lead character is a man who puts pictures of dead soldiers (from WW1) into family pictures who is haunted by the loss of his wife. He is confronted by a woman who has a picture of fairies which with all his expertise he can not disprove so he goes back with her to investigate. What follows is a tale of obsession, magic, faith, violence and loss.

The acting is superb and intense (Ben Kingsley plays a wonderfully malevolent vicar). There are scenes which are purely cinematic, especially those of the dead wife dancing and her fall in to the snow.

I would recommend this film to anyone who wants a little more out of a film. The imagery and the feelings behind it will last in your memory for a long time.
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