A shy, stuttering 8-year-old boy moves from the orphanage he's lived in since the death of his grandmother to an Irish island with his adoptive, free-spirited woman and her cold, silent husband. The story that unfolds is about both the boy and the husband coming out of their shells and learning to express and value what's important in their lives.THE GOOD: The performances of every single actor in the film stand out. Particularly the child actors do an extraordinary job. The emotional fabric of the film is wonderful. You have to be touched if you have any emotions at all! The cinematography is jaw-dropping-gorgeous, owing mostly to the beautiful Irish setting.THE BAD: There's no way around the simplicity of the script; you know everything that's going to happen long, long before it actually happens. In most films, this would be crippling; however, here it doesn't really matter because the story's about the characters, not the plot.THE VERDICT: Heart-warming, beautiful, emotional, and family-friendly. You should most certainly watch this.

If you're looking for a feel good film, "A Shine of Rainbows" (2009) maybe right up your alley. Pop the lid off the Midol, swallow a couple of capsules, put on your stretchy sweat pants allowing room for the bloat, dig out the heating pad, lay on the couch and pull up "A Shine of Rainbows" on your Instant Queue playlist on Netflix and let the tears roll. It's a real feel-good experience. (Hopefully, your significant other won't view it as another one of your bawling shows).Maire O'Donnell (Connie Nielson) is a happy go-lucky, colorful, free spirited woman who adopts ten-year-old Tomas from an orphanage, and takes him to her home on Corrie Island, off the coast of Ireland. Once Tomas arrives, he must learn to adapt to his surroundings on the island, learn to make friends with children his age regardless of his inability to speak without stuttering, and win the heart of Maire's husband, Alec (Aidan Quinn) in order to stay on the island. Alec silently disapproves of Tomas' timidness and stutter, which causes friction between Maire and Alec.Maire's positive, vibrant, and warm personality teaches Tomas everything that he needs to know lies within himself--all he has to do search within. When tragedy strikes, Tomas digs deep to find solace with nature and with himself. Tomas is convinced that love exists when he experiences the beauty of an exploded rainbow and the magic that it holds."A Shine of Rainbows won" the Heartland Film Festival Award. The message in "A Shine of Rainbows" is powerfully intoxicating, devastatingly sad, and realistically rewarding displaying array of hope in the most tragic of circumstances. This film touches the heart inside out, leaving the viewer with a trail of tears and a deeper meaning about the magic of love.

I LOVED this love story. Its rare that a movie fully captures the love of a parent and child so fully but this one did. I caught it on cable the other day and did not expect to be so moved.The actor who plays Tomas is simply astounding. His eyes convey more emotion than any adult actor I've seen in the last year. Connie Nielson, who I've only seen in Gladiator and LO-SVU, is gloriously heartbreaking in her maternal love. Aiden Quinn is excellent as the Dad who was expecting another type of child. There is not a false note in the entire movie. While the plot had no real surprises, the unfolding of the story was just beautiful. As an added bonus, the countryside is breathtaking. Highly recommend this film.

This is a feel good movie if ever I had to describe one. Yep, it will leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling at the end and might even make you more cordial towards others for a day or so. If this sounds way different than other reviews of this movie, it's not because I'm being cynical or trying to be funny; I'm not. This movie type requires a building of good feeling followed by a sudden very sad tragic event so that the redeeming third phase can effectively lift your spirit through a positive 'good can come from bad situation'; it's classic and it's a tried and true formula.The movie is as close to a fairytale as a definitively not fairytale can be. Connie Nielsen is the best looking adoptive mother you'll ever see and plays an ideal loving wife. I was envious of Aidan Quinn who plays Nielsen's husband, but only for a while because, hey, it's just a movie. So you get that Nielsen is charming as hell. Read the storyline and you'll get an idea of what you can potentially be watching, assuming you haven't yet seen the flick. Luckily, Nielsen's character dies before the abundance of sweetness she spreads turns you into a diabetic. Yea, that bit is a little cynical and perhaps funny to some. Don't get me wrong, I love Nielsen as an overly optimist character because it's just what the young boy she's adopted needed, unfortunately it renders the middle of the movie utterly predictable; as previously commented, she dies. This may sound odd but her heart of gold character in this movie made me have a flashback moment to another character, very nice contrast, she played in "Devil's Advocate". Sorry about that; I write it like I feel it.The end of the movie is pretty much predictable but you'll watch it anyway to see Quinn's smile one time before the credits start rolling; the true reason you will is because you will have come to the realisation, by then, that it's a good movie well acted. The part of the movie that, to me, makes it stand out from other movies with more or less similar story lines is that the adoptive boy, very well played by John Bell, deals with the death of his adoptive mom not like what movies are suppose to show but like the character would react if he was real. That grieving period for the boy is not a quickie scene or two but full part of the movie; it is at the core of the movie's message and it required Bell to do some acting you won't see too many actors his age deliver (best I've seen). If you need to get back in the good graces of your wife or girlfriend, or if you just need a girlfriend to warm up to you a little by showing your sensitive side, bring her to see this movie or rent it for the occasion; telling her it was depressing or boring would be a very bad idea. Resist speaking; take out the tissues and snuggle up close.