I gave this film a 10 out of a possible 10 stars.

I wish I could write as powerfully and beautifully as this.

Few films move to me to tears, only 2 or 3 have done so in my sixty some years of living. This one did.

This film encompasses so much: the differences that drive us apart, the misunderstandings that cause us emotional pain, trying our best and sometimes not meeting the expectations of others, and the love and compassionate that can bring us together--its all there in this powerfully moving film.

The story begins in Ireland, with a young wife and mother, who learns that her younger brother, Declan, (also an adult), is in a hospital, that he is gay and that he has AIDS.

Upon his release from the hospital, Declan decides he would like to stay at their widowed grandmother's house in the Irish countryside, where he and his sister stayed for some time when their mother went away to care for their father who was dying of cancer, when they were both children.

Declan's sister leaves her children in the care of her husband, and elects to stay at the grandmother's house with her brother. Some gay friends of Declan arrive to help with his care, and Declan's widowed mother also comes to stay there. The story then revolves around these people and the pain of expectations and misunderstandings that separate them.