This is a film based on a play and while its carried out with no fuss or frills in the style of a stage act, it deviates from the text too much for my liking, even changing some dialect, losing some authenticity with it. The ending of the book is so important to the story in my opinion and it doesn't match the ending of the film. Also I found the acting to be wooden and a lot of the accents to be terrible!

The film is supposedly set in Donegal and yet the two main characters, and more with them, have posh English accents a lot of the time, and when they do put on an Irish accent, its the likes of which you'd find in either cork or Dublin. And Madge is such a Dub that its funny. You'd think that you were watching an episode of Fair City. Read the book. Its better.

One of the best movies I ever saw was an Irish movie titled Philadelphia,Here I Come. I read the play before I saw the movie and loved them both. It's the story of a young man preparing to leave Ireland to go to America because he can't earn a living in Ireland. It is told both from the perspective of the young man(whom the other characters in the film can see) and another young man representing his uncensored thoughts and feelings., but who cannot be seen by the other characters in the film. It is a very sad movie, but deeply touching, and I would recommend this film to anyone who wants something to think about. I love any Irish movie, or almost any movie about Ireland, and any film that has the late Irish actor Donal McCann in it gets my vote.I would watch that man chew gum for 2 hours on screen, and unfortunately,I have.Terrible shame to have lost him so young.