Ron Howard directs Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Colm Meaney in this epic Irish romance where a clod hopper and bored heiress run away to America.

A firm family favourite in my London Irish house as a child, third only to The Quiet Man and Into The West. Haven’t watched it as an adult and, accents aside, it held up tremendously well. Strong, patient romance. Kidman leans into Katharine Hepburn in her fish-out-of-water role. Tom’s full of boyish sparkle and sincere determination. They have their best on screen chemistry here. The bursts of action are pretty rousing; pistol duels, brutal bare knuckle boxing and the big Land Race finale. It has beauty, it has sweep. DP Mikael Salomon’s shoot the shit out of his locations. Like Titanic, it is overly simple yet it makes my heart sing. Like The Quiet Man, in that it makes me yearn for a fictional, mythic homeland when I’ve only spent less than a month of my life treading the soil of the real island. Go on, stake your claim.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Days of Thunder (1990)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/