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| 48 ANGELS (MTI) $24.95 DVD -Street: Dec. 11 Color DRAMA Not
rated (language, violence), 90 min. Director Marion Comer’s 48 ANGELS is a dark, brooding, but in the end, quite touching film. Set in present day Northern Ireland, the film has a feeling similar to Danny (28 DAYS LATER,2002) Boyle’s neglected little gem, MILLIONS (2004) or the classic WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1961). Young Seamus (Ciaran Flynn) is a nine year old Catholic Irish lad who has been diagnosed with cancer. Deciding he needs a miracle, he wants to be like the martyred St. Columcille*, and so boards a rowboat and tosses his oars away, letting himself drift where he may. His hope is that he might find God before God comes to take him. Instead he finds an older Protestant teenage runaway James (John Travers), who is emotionally isolated after the witnessing the murder of his father, and a wounded man Darry (Shane Brolly, Underworld,2003), a former political prisoner whom Seamus thinks might be Jesus. The three continue on together, Seamus looking for his miracle, while the others try to forget their pasts. All three on their journey endeavor to help the others find solace and a spiritual healing.  48 ANGELS is a film of faith which doesn’t force the issue, it is an original and moving film that captures the innocence of childhood. At the end, I think the audience will come away from the film with different opinions, depending on what they bring to the experience, & are open to receiving. The accents are a bit hard to understand at first, but the story is so clearly told that one quickly falls under the story’s spell. There are no extras besides trailers on the DVD, but the film is special in itself.
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