The movie does manage to bring some charm to the screen through its small star who, despite being given less character treatment than I'd preferred, is very cute and actually made me smile at certain points. Her views of the world through boarding school, and rebelling against authority is charming as well as her relationship with her father which is a treat to watch. The film brings a very bright and airy sort of mood that families will like and it's hardly ever depressing considering its material and subject matter.

"Evelyn" is a film that seems as if it tries to come off with the best intentions, featuring a story that is attempting to be so sweet, along with performances that really try to be powerful, but in the end everything here is so hokey, it unfortunately ends up being really awful because everything here is so contrived from previous films with much better stories.

Desmond Doyle is basically a town drunk who hangs out at the local pub every day singing and sitting around, but really he loves his children. He attempts to provide for his children but his wife is losing patience. One morning, his wife drives off with another man while their youngest, Evelyn watches. Confused as to what exactly he should do, he decides to gather his bearings and take control of his family, but his children are shipped off against his will to the local orphanage/boarding school, and is told that in order to get his children back he has to fight for them, and get a job.

But he discovers not only that he adores his children after they're gone realizing how he took them for granted, but also learns what his priorities lie. The first movie that popped into my mind after watching this was "Kramer Vs. Kramer", one of my favorite films of all time, a film which was much different since it took place in modern times, and Dustin Hoffman's character was a workaholic instead of a slacker. Also, the primary thing was, that film was better, much better.

In "Kramer vs. Kramer" we were able to analyze the relationship between a father and his children, the rebirth of their relationship through being forced to live together, and the effects of divorce along with the psychology of both parents while this film is never really sure exactly what it's trying to do. Is it a story about a precocious little girl surviving boarding school? Is it a story about a man fighting for his children, his morals, or for his life? Why does he want them back? How come he never got a job when told to? Why did the mother leave? Why is it we only focus on "Evelyn" the smallest child and not Doyle's other children?

It's safe to say "Evelyn" is all over the place plot wise and its main focus is supposed to be on the child Evelyn played by the cute Sophie Vavasseur, but aren't they all adorable as is the case? Regardless we're supposed to watch her cope through boarding school and through a lot of emotionally manipulative plot twists and devices that was never sad or heartbreaking, just manipulative. There were times during this film that just made me roll my eyes a lot that were really supposed to make me cry, but the moments that were "heartbreaking" were so staged that it never felt realistic. And then there's the main stars Pierce Brosnan and Julianna Marguiles who gives the worst Irish accents I've ever heard in a movie, bar none.

This movie was pretty terrible, but the fact that Brosnan and Marguiles give such horrible accents made it hard to focus, where was the dialect coach for the actors? Because Brosnan tries really hard to hide his distinguished accent for a more ghetto Irish accent but boy does he fail here, and then there's Julianna Marguiles who doesn't have much of a role here in the first place and is basically given a very under-developed romance plot with Brosnan's character on the rare times she's on-screen.

There are just so many sub-plots in this film nothing ever feels like a smooth progression of story telling, all of it really feels as if they're following a by the numbers script. With a lot of under developed characters like the likable grandfather who is given a manipulative sub-plot, the young lawyer, played by Aidan Quinn, who has to prove himself, the likable friendly bar wench Bernadette who becomes friends with Desmond and all of the plots here end or continue on until the climax with really cheesy moments that try really hard to be emotional when it's not only just sappy, but really hokey. There are a lot of moments that just didn't register including an abusive nun, and the death of a character that comes out of nowhere all of which never made for entertaining film fare, just a trite, derivative and cliché story.

While it does have its charm, and it does, it's a pretty bad, pretty hokey piece of fluff that never really registers as a genuine drama, only as an emotionally manipulative piece of dribble with actors that give horrible accents.