Based loosely on Brenda Maddox’s biography of Nora Barnacle, Pat Murphy’s eagerly awaited film traces the torrid and tempestuous love affair between Barnacle (Lynch) and James Joyce (McGregor), from their first meeting in 1904 until the publication of The Dubliners in 1914. Capturing perfectly the prevailing moral and religiousclimate of Ireland at the turn of the last century, the film portrays Nora taking a painterly look at the stifling world against which both she and Joyce rebel. For Murphy, the real insurgent of the couple was Barnacle, a spirited Molly Bloom who pushes the young writer to explore the boundaries of his art and sexuality. Barnacle has always remained a shadowy figure in Joycean lore, but Murphy’s sensitive and revealing portrait goes far in acknowledging her profound influence on the twentieth century’s most celebrated artist.