MOVIE REVIEW : Boy Comes of Age in Small but Poignant ‘Country’ : Movie review: Death of mother brings son and his father face-to-face in politically troubled Ireland.

Peter Yates’ deeply affecting “The Run of the Country” is a poignant coming-of-age story set in a deceptively idyllic-looking village in County Cavan, south of the Northern Irish border.

Constantly lurking in the background are British troops, with the possibility of bloodshed. But what concerns 18-year-old Danny (Matt Keeslar) is the devastating loss of his beloved mother, which means that he and his strong, blunt father (Albert Finney), a police sergeant, are at last brought face-to-face without a buffer.

Dreamy, sensitive, a reader of contemporary Irish poetry, Danny has been all set to go to university, but now he’s at loose ends and instantly clashes with his father, who already has his eye on another woman, much to the chagrin of his son. That the father really could love his wife deeply but still want to get on with his life is just the first of the many things that Danny needs to discover in a man he doesn’t truly know. Self-made and constantly reminding his son of that fact, the father talks tough about life’s hard realities but hasn’t a clue as to how to express love for Danny--or even that he needs to do so.

This beautiful-looking film of much understanding--and no small measure of humor--marks an auspicious reunion of Yates and Finney, whose collaboration on “The Dresser” brought them both Oscar nominations and British Academy nominations and marked the beginning of an upward curve in the career of Finney as a star character actor that continues unbroken with this film. Shane Connaughton, himself an Oscar nominee for his script for “My Left Foot,” adapted his own novel to the screen with much skill.

“The Run of the Country” unfolds gracefully on the screen while possessing the rich substance of a fine novel. It has a keen feeling of life being lived before our eyes--of our discovering what its people are all about at the same time they do so themselves. At its center is Danny, who is trying to make sense of his loss and of his life--and who is soon falling in love for the first time, with Annagh (Victoria Smurfit, poised and charming), an intelligent, ambitious auburn-haired beauty who also has an appreciation of poetry.

Events swirl around Danny, who in the words of a friend’s mother has “the run of the country” as he moves through this period of limbo. Danny is a figure in a universal rite of passage, but all that he experiences is rooted firmly in the political realities of contemporary Ireland and in an Irish Catholicism that at once sustains and oppresses the people of Danny’s world.

In his first starring role, Keeslar is rightly brooding and self-absorbed as Danny. Both Finney, whose emotional reserves are as rich as ever, as the blustery father, and Anthony Brophy as Danny’s free-spirited, hell-raising best pal offer contrast and provide the film with its vitality. “The Run of the Country” is one of those worthy small films you can only hope will find the audience it deserves.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong sex scene and some language. Times guidelines: The film also has some violence; the love-making, though tastefully presented, is decidedly for mature audiences.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

‘The Run of the Country’

Albert Finney: Father

Matt Keeslar: Danny

Victoria Smurfit: Annagh

Anthony Brophy: Prunty

A Columbia Pictures release of a Castle Rock Entertainment presentation of a One Two Nine production. Director Peter Yates. Producers Yates and Ruth Boswell. Screenplay by Shane Connaughton; based on his own novel. Cinematographer Mike Southon. Music Cynthia Millar. Art director David Wilson. Set decorator Mark Geraghty. Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes.

* At selected theaters in Los Angeles and Orange counties.