I enjoyed this one quite a bit, set in two time zones and countries with a more than decent cast. There's mystery, a heartbreaking romance, and an exciting (yet convenient) conclusion in Ireland.The story flips fairly seamlessly between 1991 and 1943, starting with the passing of World War II veteran Chuck Harris. His wife (Shirley MacLaine) refuses to grieve, numbing herself with alcohol and lashing out at her daughter (Neve Campbell) and lifelong friend (Christopher Plummer).Through a series of flashbacks where Shirley becomes (Mischa Barton), we learn that Chuck wasn't her first love and that her heart belonged to Teddy (Stephen Amell) who never returned from WW2. We also see Belfast in 1991 where (Pete Postlethwaite) - love him and young Jimmy are digging on a mountainside finding bits of pieces from a downed B-17 bomber, eventually they discover a ring inscribed from Teddy to Ethel and after tracking down its history a mystery nearly five decades in the making slowly comes into focus.The story is very good story but a bit all over the place where the characters emotions are concerned, which are over the top at times and mean without reason. Shirley is especially nasty to her daughter but even Plummer has his moments.The acting was fantastic though, the flashbacks well done, I was surprised to see Stephen Amell's 'Arrow' in an early role. The story in Ireland was more involved than I thought it would be including gangsters and IRA bombings. I enjoyed Martin McCann as young Jimmy and the inclusion of the hawk to tie it all together. Sad. 11/8/15

First of all, this didn't deserve the straight to DVD treatment it received for the U.S. It's not perfect by any means, but it's an experience that should have been seen on the big screen. No, it's not action packed, but it's beautiful to watch. It's a romance with dimensions that work very well, and oddly enough I wasn't one step ahead of it the whole way through. Some elements are always a bit predictable for a film like this, but I wasn't always entirely sure where it was heading next. This could have gotten a solid score of 10 had it not been for several severe flaws. The biggest of which is the actor playing Teddy. Now imagine The Notebook if Ryan Gosling was an awful actor, it would have destroyed the movie. Luckily, as important as the Teddy character is, he's not in a massive part of the film, and it's easy to imagine what the character should have been, and believe the key romance behind the film. Mischa worked for me for the most part, although she had a majority of her scenes with the lifeless Teddy character. McClain and Plummer were amazing as they usually always are. Campbell did a believable effort as the daughter lost behind all the secrets, and I loved the actors who played the young friends of Teddy. Lastly, in the end we are treated with one of the most beautiful film songs in years. Watch the credits, you'll here the amazing Lost Without Your Love, which will complete your experience with this flawed but wonderful film.

I really wanted to like this movie, which I saw on video recently, several years after its theatrical release. I'm a sucker for a romance, but even I found this overly sentimental. I thought the acting was terrific and the casting was genius - having Christopher Plummer and Shirley McLaine played as youngsters by Gregory Smith (from Everwood) and Misha Barton improved the somewhat uneven movie and made it more watchable than it would have been. I liked the way the mystery played out - I liked that the audience had to piece things together. But once you knew what had happened, it wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped. I also found the IRA violence in the modern story strange and out of place - sort of confusing and unnecessary in a movie that was already fairly complicated. Overall it was a pretty affecting romance and family drama about love and forgiveness and all that good stuff, but not quite as good as it could have been.

I enjoyed this movie, but more towards the end. It seems like the beginning was just thrown together so quickly, the love story progressed so fast that for me I didn't believe they were in love or ever in love, but later in the movie you see the love stronger than for me it was in the beginning. It's sort of like okay you see us two or three times, now you are supposed to believe we are in love, and oh yes, and now let's get married and have babies?! I just didn't buy it.Other than that, the movie is really entertaining and sad at the same time. Just a few of the characters and their stories just for me were not fully put on the table, and issues not resolved, etc...