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SOME FISH CAN FLY Send This Review to a Friend
It's a pleasure to welcome a sincere love story with people who matter in contrast to some of the gimmicky, hyped up foolishness that we get in bloated Hollywood misfires. "Some Fish Can Fly," a tale of lovers trying to bridge the Atlantic between New York and Ireland, is a first feature by talented Robert Kane Pappas, who wrote and directed. It's obviously a story that springs from the heart and it affords the kind of gentle pleasures that low-budget independent films sometimes do, even without superstars in the leading roles, and perhaps especially because they are not.
Nancy St. Alban is an absolute charmer as Nora, a young Irish nanny who while in New York meets an aspiring filmmaker named Kevin, played sympathetically by Kevin Causey. Anyone who has attempted to carry on such a long distance love affair will immediately recognize the pitfalls. Money is a problem to start with, as neither has the means to readily soar back and forth across the ocean. The meetings take planning, complicated by Nora's strong ties to her family, whom we never meet. But we do know they are opposed to Nora's marriage to her American. St. Alban is so likable as Nora that one accepts her confession of virginity to Kevin, even though at first she pretends to be more worldly.
Kevin does seem overly testy in his attitude toward Nora's Irish roots and her inability to break loose. Along the way Pappas introduces another dimension, the making of a film about the experience. That's a story in itself, with a sharp take on all of the efforts to raise money and do an independent film without artistic compromise despite investors who want to dictate casting.
I think the love story works better than the film story, but Pappas manages to juggle them adroitly. This is a bittersweet romantic yarn, and the writer-director imbues it with freshness and humor. It helps that the audience can never be sure about how it is all going to turn out. When I saw Hollywood's insipid "The Story of Us" I was rooting for the couple to divorce; this time I was hoping the lovers would surmount obstacles and make a life together.
Along the way we are gifted with lovely scenes of Cork and the Irish countryside. It's enough to inspire a call to one's travel agent. An Artistic License release.
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