The Dawning
Tags: melodrama

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with Angus Barrie (Anthony Hopkins), an Irish Republican Army member, walking through hills, and coming to rest on a beach, where there is a little hut. Meanwhile, Nancy Gulliver (Rebecca Pidgeon) having just left school, burns all her books in happiness. It is her birthday, and her aunt (Jean Simmons) has invited over Harry (Hugh Grant), with whom she’s desperately in love, to tea. However, during the course of the film, as a result of Harry’s behaviour with another girl and the way he treats Nancy, she realises that her love for Harry was nothing more than childish infatuation.
One day, Nancy goes down to the beach, and notices that her hut has been slept in. She leaves a note requesting that it be left alone. Soon after, she is on the beach reading, when Barrie comes up to her. Over the course of the film, the two develop a relationship, despite her not really knowing and understanding his job: he is one of the first people that became part of a group named the IRA, and is on the run from the government. Nevertheless, she grows fond of Barrie, and dubs him "Cassius" ("because you have a mean and hungry look!")
After Cassius asks her to pass on a message to a colleague, several Officers of the British Army are gunned down at a horse race show. Later that day, Captain Rankin (played by Adrian Dunbar) of the Black and Tans comes to see the Family, and asks if anyone knows where Cassius is. The officers' suspicion is aroused when Nancy's grandfather (played by Trevor Howard) says he saw her talking to a man on the beach. She denies any knowledge. When they leave, she runs to the hut on the beach where Cassius was staying to tell him to flee, only to find that he has already packed. As they walk out, a light shines on them: the Black and Tans has found him. He is gunned down, much to Nancy's distress. The film ends with Nancy back at home, considerably older and wiser than when the film started.

Review: Lovely little movie.... No big drama. No overblown action. Just a beautifully-filmed little movie that tells a simple story against a background of Irish political upheaval. Rebecca Pidgeon plays a sheltered, shabby-genteel girl just turning eighteen, who still has a bit of the outward appearance and behavior of a child. Orphaned young but raised by a loving aunt, grandfather, and housekeeper, she knows her mother is well and truly dead but has doubts about her father and tries to place him among the men she casually observes around town. When a man of suitable age appears on the beach near her rural home, she takes great interest--especially as his secretive nature offers few clues to his identity. Anthony Hopkins, eternally superb, plays the multi-layered character of the "tramp," and the relationship that develops between the two is the heart of the film. Look also for fine performances by Jean Simmons and Hugh Grant, as well as a host of familiar faces in small roles, and take the time to appreciate the lovely wind-whipped seaside locale and green inland vistas. A movie like this relies on character and scenery--The Dawning is a treasury of both.. For Anthony Hopkins Fans Only. In the minor genre of films about the Irish Revolution, there is a very small sub-genre of romances projected on to the backdrop of the Troubles. The best of these is of course "Ryan's Daughter", the average is "Cal" and the absolute worst is this turkey, "The Dawning." TD treats the huge turmoil of Ireland during the War of Independence as fodder for the self-absorption of a ditsy eighteen-yr-old. The script makes a big point early in the film about how much the heroine resents being considered immature, and then spends the rest of the movie showing that's exactly what she is. Frankly, she comes off as being more like a high school girl than a young woman about to leave for college. I got tired of this character very quickly, and soon found myself getting bored every time Hopkins wasn't on the screen. It did occur to me to wonder if the writer had written the character this way deliberately but if so, it was a very odd dramatic strategy; there was no real growth in the girl over the course of the movie.The one bright spot in TD is Anthony Hopkin's performance which is pretty good (especially considering how little he had to work with). If you're a big fan of AH, this flick might be worth your time; otherwise, give it a miss.