Synopsis
A priest stationed in Tipperary, Ireland, is eager to return to Rome. Told he cannot do so until he has raised enough money for the building of a new church, he decides to open a cinema in the local town.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Martin SheenFr. Daniel Barry
- Joey O'SullivanJoey
- Trystan GravelleTim Lynch
- Marcella PlunkettMolly
- Stephen ReaBrendan
- Tom HickeyBishop Hegarty
- Derbhle CrottyJulia McSweeney
- Amy HubermanEileen
- Garrett LombardJimmy
- Ruth McCabeMiss Courtney
Recommendations
- 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Playing an emotionally burdened small-town Catholic priest in culturally isolated 1950s Ireland, Martin Sheen does his best work since "The West Wing" in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's Stella Days. - 70
Village Voice
Thanks to its understated elegance and surpassing central performance, this modest, too-eagerly schematic period drama is more engrossing than it has a right to be. - 70
Variety
Although Martin Sheen often goes full cherub in his depiction of the film's central Catholic priest, the pictue is also a frank assessment of a cleric's crisis of faith and the church's rather ruthless efforts to maintain medieval control in the face of modernization. - 67
The A.V. Club
Stella Days' strongest asset is Sheen. - 50
The New York Times
Relaxed performances and pillow-soft photography compensate somewhat for the story's narrow ambitions, but they're not enough to invigorate a movie that clearly would rather charm than challenge. - 38
New York Post
Sheen's throwback portrayal is appealing enough, but flat characters, dull revelations and uninvolving complications make this deliberately small film feel nearly microscopic.
