Nuns? Check. Booze? Check. Fiddle player? Check. Why, we must be in Ireland! With these and other similarly predictable core ingredients, this fact-based period piece immediately reveals itself to be a shamelessly feel-good clichéathon.
Brosnan puts Bond on hold to play Desmond, a recently dumped Dublin decorator who's desperate to be reunited with his orphanage-dwelling kiddies (it's 1953, and the law doesn't allow for single fathers to raise children).
The performances are solid, but the script relies too heavily on 'touching' moments that too often fail to hit the spot. As the sentimental formula requires, Desmond must battle nuns, judges and alcohol habits to win back wilful Evelyn and her eminently forgettable little brothers. And, with the aid of inspirational love interest Bernadette (Margulies) and her lawyer connections, he's on his way to what's meant to be a heart-tugging courtroom finale. But like the rest of the film, the verdict is too telegraphed to cut deeply.