Eden (2008)

It's tempting to say that the most Irish thing about Eden is the gnarly — and rather musical — thickness of the brogues. (Get ready to listen — hard.) Yet what's just as Irish about it is its sweetly saddened ''wholesome'' vision of love and lust pushing their ways toward separate shores. After 10 years of marriage, Billy (Aidan Kelly) and Breda (Eileen Walsh) dump themselves into bed each night like twin sacks of potatoes. Their fire has gone out, yet they still care for each other, and it's with a peculiar mournful Gaelic whimsy that they accept their predicament. At the pub, Billy downs ale and flirts with the neighborhood hottie, whose button nose, shag cut, and hoop earrings are an erotic image that haunts his daydreams. Breda, meanwhile, is making a purple dress for the couple's 10th anniversary, a Saturday-night event that both are treating as their final chance at love. Eden lacks the technique to give its stifled domestic-erotic feelings their full power. Yet Kelly and Walsh, who has a shy sensuality that pokes out of her toothy homely beauty, are emotionally eloquent. B–

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