Imdb Ranking 6.6
Set in the 1920's, Mrs. Edwina Broome (Natasha Richardson) has just moved in to a section of Kilshannon where most of the neighbors tend to be widows. Mrs. Doyle-Counihan (Joan Plowright) is the leader of the group. She warns Miss Katherine O'Hare (Mia Farrow) about hanging around with the local dentist, Con Clancy, a local dentist.
When her car breaks down on the way in she has to take a ride in front of Godfrey Doyle-Counihan's horse. When Mrs. Doyle-Counihan sees Edwina at the movies she tells her to move across the aisle to be with the people from on top of the hill and away from the commoners.
After the movie Edwina tells the ladies about herself. Her husband had been killed in the war. The ladies really don't learn as much as they want and they are still very curious. Mrs. O'Hara doesn't like the English and at a dance she has a spat with Edwina.
Edwina stops over to see Mrs. O'Hara and tries to get along but Mrs. O'Hara just ignores her. On her way out of the yard she pulls Mrs. O'Hara's prize roses off the bush. When Edwina's parked car goes rolling down a hill an gets damaged, she blames Mrs. O'Hara. Then written on her stone wall it says "English Go Home."
Godfrey and Edwina go out for a boat ride and Godfrey proposes. The next thing you know Godfrey and Edwina race Con and Mrs. O'Hara. With a little help from Edwina at the wheel Godfrey's boat forces Con's boat in to the rocks. Mrs. O'Hara says that Edwina is trying to kill her. A mystery has developed: why does Edwina hate Mrs. O'Hara so much?
When some English nay officers come to an outdoor party, one of them recognizes Edwina. The mystery gets deeper. Then someone puts an anonymous letter in Con's mailbox and he confronts Mrs. O'Hara with it. When she can't deny the contents, Con leaves her. Mrs. O'Hara then tells a group at dinner about the contents of the letter. She had a baby thirty years ago by a soldier in 1904. Mrs. Doyle-Counihan told her to give up the baby and no one would ever find out about it. So Mrs. O'Hara gave the baby away. The baby died when she was three of scarlet fever.
Mrs. O'Hara tells the group that Edwina is an impostor. She tells the group that Edwina is after Gofrey's money. She also tells how the young navy officer recognized her from a brothel in the south of France. Edwina gets up to go, but Godfrey still wants her but Edwina walks out.
Looking in her spy glass Mrs. Doyle-Counihan sees Edwina go on Mrs. O'Hara's boat and they begin to struggle as the boat goes out. When the police get out to the boat, Mrs. O'Hara is no longer on the boat. Edwina is locked up in jail and charged with murder. Then Mrs. O'Hara shows up, alive. She says she is moving away from widow's Peak.
A lawyer comes to Mrs. Doyle-Counihan's house and is bringing a suit against her for trying to have her hanged under false pretenses. We then see Edwina and Mrs. O'Hara together - daughter with her mother. They had taught the locals a lesson for the way they were treated thirty years ago.
A great cast, with an interesting story, but somehow it just didn't all come together very well. Should have been better.
