Four Letters of Love ★★★

Adapted from Niall Williams’s novel and directed by Polly Steele, the film follows Nicholas and Isabel, two young people shaped by loss and longing, whose lives converge through quiet miracles and emotional residue.

Fionn O’Shea and Ann Skelly bring a raw vulnerability to the lead roles, while Pierce Brosnan offers one of his most restrained performances as William, a father who abandons his family in pursuit of divine inspiration. Helena Bonham Carter’s Margaret quietly anchors the film’s emotional fallout.

The story blends realism with gentle magical touches of ghosts, fate and moments of grace which lend the narrative a haunted, dreamlike quality. Damien Elliott’s cinematography captures the Irish coast with poetic melancholy, though some scenes slip into melodrama, and the pacing drifts, especially with the frequent time shifts.

While the film gestures at themes of abandonment, emotional dependency, and the aching need to reconnect, these remain mostly subtextual. The result is evocative but sometimes underpowered. The final act delivers a soft, redemptive ending—satisfying for some, but perhaps too neat for others craving more ambiguity.

Four Letters of Love doesn’t always land its emotional beats cleanly, but its tender atmosphere and spiritual undercurrents may resonate with those drawn to poetic, introspective storytelling.