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A Love Divided (1999)

tomatometer

67

Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 3

No consensus yet.

audience

54

liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 846

My Rating

Movie Info

Based on a true story, A Love Divided chronicles the aftermath of Sheila's (Orla Brady) pledge to send her children to Catholic school. Raised Protestant, Sheila was forced to sign a contract obligating her to bring up her own children as Catholics when she was married into the religion, but years later she decides that no church will dictate the religion chosen for her kids. The dogmatic Father Stafford (Tony Doyle), however, is so relentless in his insistence that her children do, indeed,

Jul 30, 2002

Parallel Films

Cast

All Critics (21) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (9) | DVD (1)

An Irish drama that's a lot more sly and a lot less straightforward than it appears on the surface.

December 14, 2001 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
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Powerful indictment of the lengths human beings will go to to be right.

November 30, 2001 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | Comment
Detroit Free Press
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It's like a PBS version of a movie of the week about child abduction, complete with histrionic, spit-flecked speechifying in quaint Irish brogues.

September 21, 2001 Comment
Washington Post
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A cautionary tale of the mischief that can happen when men no longer see their neighbors as human.

September 21, 2001 Comment
Washington Post
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A solid, balanced period piece that focuses on a specific place and time yet resonates with universal themes.

June 22, 2001 Comment
Boston Globe
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Sydney Macartney, whose previous directing experience had been mostly in television, deals freshly with situations that also could have been cliches.

June 21, 2001 Comment
New Republic
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A tug-at-your-heartstrings weepie from the sledgehammer school of filmmaking.

December 14, 2001 Comment
San Francisco Examiner

The drama feels artificially pumped-up.

October 12, 2001 Full Review Source: Seattle Times | Comment
Seattle Times

The gripping A Love Divided will leave you taking sides, whether or not that was the film's intent.

September 7, 2001 Full Review Source: Miami Herald | Comment
Miami Herald

Overplays its hand, with far too much melodramatic shouting from leads Liam Cunningham and Orla Brady.

August 23, 2001 Comment
New Times

Personal views aside, this small, well-crafted Irish production achieves importance by saying what it intends to say with both strength and conviction.

June 1, 2001 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

Fine performances ... help keep it from seeming excessively schematic.

June 1, 2001 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

It fails to arouse much more than deep annoyance.

June 1, 2001 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | Comment
Boxoffice Magazine
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for A Love Divided

A touching movie!

January 20, 2008
ileo
Leo L

Super Reviewer

Very good..based on a true story about the control that a Catholic church tried to put on a small town...and sadly succeeded in some ways.

March 29, 2009
moviegirl50
Robin P.

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