leplatypus Well, my title isn't fabulous but for me, it's a bit like watching Dead poets society set in Ireland = a movie about old style students getting adults in a strict university! So this movie has everything I love: higher learning, campus, green landscape, parental and societal values, a beautiful romance and a really cool cast: they have become famous now but at the time, they were fresh and it's a joy to have them all together here: Chris O'Donnell, Alan Cumming, Colin Firth, Ciarán Hinds and for sure Minnie! Sure she has an unusual beauty but the movie shows brilliantly she has foremost a big heart and that is all matters! For her first movie, she is really convincing and moving and the decade (1995- 2004) when she built her career was indeed great memories!

Kristinartist79 This was a great movie, but it was a little different than the book. Spoilers: Nan was friends with Benny and Eve since childhood in the movie. In the book, they met at college. I liked O'Donald's character better in the movie than in the book. In the book, he acted like a jerk to Benny when she was too busy taking care of her widowed mother. In the movie, though he did feel a little lonely and got a little impatient,he (up until he cheated on her) was a little more understanding. In the book, I thought they implied that Benny got together with her, but I think she left it up to the author to decide. Other users says they did not get back together. In the movie, they definitely did get back together. I liked the part where Benny hit the bag over that creep's head and the money spilled out! Nan and Eve were great for their part. Although I do not consider O'Donald gorgeous, he is talented. I read some users comments. I also noticed the flaw they made when they said they were making their confirmation, (as other users stated) which was really the communion. However, that was not important to me. A lot of users were critical about the movie being so centered around sex. I agree with them, that it did get too much after a while, but those are real problems that teens and young adults faced then, and now. But back then they did not have sex education. (just guilt, from the catholic church)Perhaps if people talked to them about the real consequences of having sex (rather that preaching about it being a mortal sin)they would not have so much of a desire to have it. I think if this were a real story, Benny would have made a big mistake by having sex(obviously unprotected) and it would be a shame for a talented smart writer like Benny to ruin her chance of having a career; however, the movie ended there. I do not think it was made to teach you that you should have premarital sex, (though realistically it happened, even then, though it was just not talked of) It was made to entertain. It was a romantic love story, not a life lesson. A lot of people were disappointed by the fact that Benny gave Jack and second chance, but at least in the movie, he was not a jerk like he was in the book, as I said. Somebody said that the parents looked old for parents back then, but it was not unusual for women to take years to get pregnet, or to have many miscarriages (sadly). Back then they did not have the prenatal care that they have now, or ways of getting pregnet. The fact that she had only one child was also unusual for that time, which also implies that the mother probably took a long time to conceive. So I thought using older parents was appropriate, and backed up justly. Overall, a great movie!

david_k This review contains SPOILERS, I'm trying to save you from seeing this movie.I started watching this movie thinking I was going to like it. It looked like a coming of age tale, the 1950's Irish setting seemed appealing, the characters seemed interesting. The main character is a large, unattractive girl, Bennie, from a small town, and the story centers around her and her two friends, Eve and Nan. Eve was a simple girl with a moralistic bent, raised in a convent, while Nan grew up a sophisticated, big city girl in Dublin. The story really gets going while the three are at university. For a while it seemed like a sweet coming of age tale of some sort, but I should have been suspicious when all the excerpts of college lectures dealt with the sexual practices of savages, and with all the talk about sex, between the girls and between Bennie and her new boyfriend, a jock on campus and a pre-med major.The movie goes along pretty innocently for quite a while. The girls were in school, and it looked like the girls were striving to expand their horizons, improve their situation. They go to a dance and are caught up with boyfriends. Then a lot of the action is compressed in the last half hour of the movie, turning the whole thing into a big, sappy soap opera. Nan services some guy, get rejected by the buffoon when they discover she's pregnant, then seduces Bennie's boyfriend in an attempt to trick HIM into marrying her. Eve finds out, approaches Nan with a bread knife, causing Nan to fall, get cut, and lose the baby. The boyfriend then returns to Bennie and she takes him back, and the movie ends as these two are finally about to go all the way. As it ends, you don't feel uplifted, Bennie hasn't learned anything or grown, she remains a big, unattractive girl, now with a boyfriend that knows he graze in greener pastures once in a while and she'll take him back.

Jennifer May Spoilers in this review, please do not read if you don't want the movie ruined.I read the book and to be honest, was very bored with it from the start, but once I start a book, I always finish. Well, about a day after I finished the book, I found the movie online and decided to buy it and figured maybe it would be better. I was so very wrong. Minnie Driver isn't even close to being "a barrel of a girl" or an "elephant" as she was called in the book many many times. You could even see her bones popping out of her skin through most of the movie.The whole point of the book and the story is that you don't have to be a beauty or thin or perfect. Benny seemed to be the same size as the other girls with a little chubbier face. They also completely changed the ending, she turns Jack down flat and moves on with her life (in the book) instead of pining away over the man who broke her heart and ending up back with him.(in the movie) I have many more complaints about the differences but I will spare you.Both the movie and the book are pretty much boring, I wouldn't waste your time with either of them.