The Eclipse 2009

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Hinds has been ready for a role of this size and shape for years; it was simply a matter of finding it, and its finding him. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Makes good on its name by sometimes obscuring its themes and even point, which can have its charms though also severe drawbacks. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A leisurely and quite lovely drama that honors the conventions of gothic ghost stories without the slightest stain of self-irony. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: In his quiet house hung with portraits of those who have become ghosts, Michael finally learns to mourn, and we realize that storytelling is how a writer grieves. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: McPherson brews a strangely appealing composite, a movie that is mostly character-driven romance but that seasons the proceedings with timely scare-your-pants-off moments of horror. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Though The Eclipse travels a sleepy route to a shrug of anticlimax, it's refreshing to see a film acknowledge that life and love don't end at 50, even in the outsized shadow of a soulmate's death. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The town and surrounding landscapes make a gorgeous setting -- the Irish tourist board will be happy -- but at its heart The Eclipse is a small, contained ghost story about a haunted man learning to exorcise himself. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The whole thing would probably have flown apart if not for Hinds, whose character, like a dark star imploding, pulls everything toward him. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A smart, scary, spine-tinglingly matter-of-fact ghost story. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: The Eclipse finds plenty of heartfelt gravity in its tale of love lost and found on a gothic coast. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: McPherson -- while getting some lovely shots of the Irish seaside -- never succeeds in making Michael's literary interests, or Lena's passionate interests, seem quite plausible. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: There are few surprises hidden in the film's hushed spookiness. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: McPherson balances these disparate elements with great skill, never resorting to cheap scare tactics in what amounts to a sensitive character study. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The Eclipse is about death and sadness, rebirth and possibility. The film is anchored by Hinds' performance -- the actor brings a soulful melancholy to the proceedings. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: He acting is of the highest caliber, but the characters and their circumstances are underwritten. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The supernatural never seems far out of sight in Ireland, and it creeps in here and there during The Eclipse, a dark romance set at a literary festival in the County Cork cathedral town of Cobh. I'm not sure it's required, but it does little harm. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Ultimately, though, it feels fleeting and slight passing across our line of vision, never a full but merely a partial engagement. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: An above-average ghost tale elevated by its cast. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Unlike McPherson's stage work, The Eclipse never finds a common ground between the fantastic and the heartfelt. Read more

John Anderson, Variety: Quinn, alternately charming and loathsome, is brilliant, as is Hinds, an actor who has elevated everything he's been in. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: The Eclipse is a curious Irish ghost story that fiddles with the recipe just enough to produce interesting results. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: McPherson has managed a rare hat trick in genre mash-up, fashioning a deeply absorbing movie that balances horror, romance, comedy and observant humanism with surprising finesse. Read more