Movie Review : ‘Widow’s Peak’ an Engaging and Literate Comedic Piffle

“Widow’s Peak” is a lilting little whodunit trussed up as a domestic comedy. Set in the village of Kilshannon, Ireland, in the early 1920s, it’s an actors’ holiday of a movie. The lead female performers--Mia Farrow, Joan Plowright, Natasha Richardson--make it something of a holiday for us, too.

The Widow’s Peak of the title is a high bluff overlooking Kilshannon that is home to a community of well-to-do widows who spend much of their time gossiping and snooping into one another’s business. Mrs. Doyle-Counihan (Plowright), who wields a mean telescope for her spy-mastering, is the peak’s unofficial matriarch. Twice-widowed, she has a prim imperiousness; the peak is her eminent domain.

Her son Godfrey (Adrian Dunbar) is a gangly twit who attempts to lead a double life. Around his mother he’s a lap dog but in the presence of the village’s mysterious new war widow, Edwina Broome (Natasha Richardson), he tries to be a smoothie. (She sees right through him--no great achievement.) Then there’s Miss O’Hare (Mia Farrow), also something of a mystery, who is the only non-widow allowed to live on Widow’s Peak. (Godfrey is the only man allowed.) She’s a fragile waif with a not-so-fragile disposition. Her instant dislike of Edwina becomes a free-for-all spat that turns the village inside out.

Irish playwright Hugh Leonard (“Da”) and director John Irvin let these actors exult in their roles without allowing the film to devolve into broad blarneyisms. It’s all a bit too composed and patterned, and the plot twists aren’t particularly twisty. But the scenery and costumes have been chosen with great care and intelligence; it may be a “Masterpiece Theatre” piffle but it’s a well-done piffle. It doesn’t overvalue its literacy or good cheer.

It would have been easy for Plowright to play Mrs. Doyle-Counihan as a ramrod but there are many more shadings in the performance. Doyle-Counihan is careful to sit apart from the villagers at public gatherings, but she’s not a snob exactly--she’s just devoted to protocol. There’s a wonderful moment when she’s watching a Cecil B. DeMille biblical movie and whispers excitedly to Miss O’Hare that she’s heard that “we see God in the second half.” This no-nonsense woman who has outlasted two husbands still has the capacity for wonder, at least when the lights are down.

Farrow is remarkably good in a difficult role. In her own way, Miss O’Hare is as tough as Doyle-Counihan but she always looks like she’s about to fade away. Farrow shows a mettle here that she didn’t always have an opportunity to demonstrate in her many Woody Allen movies, where she was often cast as a simpering rag doll. Richardson brings her out--she’s not just a co-performer, she’s an opponent. Richardson is such a different kind of performer--savvy and sharp where Farrow is nervy and neurasthenic--that their battles resemble a competition between performing styles.

Everybody wins.

* MPAA rating: PG, for mild language and theme. Times guidelines: It includes a boat capsizing and a murder trial .

‘Widow’s Peak’

Mia Farrow: Miss O’Hare

Joan Plowright: Mrs. Doyle-Counihan

Natasha Richardson: Edwina

Adrian Dunbar: Godfrey

A Fine Line Features release. Director John Irvin. Producer Jo Manuel. Executive producer Michael White. Screenplay by Hugh Leonard. Cinematographer Ashley Rowe. Editor Peter Tanner. Costumes Consolata Boyle. Music Carl Davis. Production design Leo Austin. Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes.

* In limited release .