Perhaps the problem with this movie is the fact that the director is a Serbian filmmaker. Or that the co-writer is his wife. It could be that his Balkan background was ill equipped to adapt a Chinese story to a 1920's Irish village. (Maybe the multi-national money people behind this project insisted on using Ireland.) Whatever the reason, when you name your leading character "Meaney", portray virtually all the characters in a realistic style and then have the main character turn into a tree, then you've got a melange that sinks under the woven strands of too many stylistic ideas. <br /><br />I would also like to comment on the cinematographer's lighting (though ultimately the director has to o.k. the look when he sees the dailies.) Disclaimer: I worked as a lighting technician in the mainstream U.S. film industry for 25 years. Most of the time when movies are transferred from film/digital to DVD, the bottom line is to do it as cheaply as one can. One really can't fairly comment on good lighting or bad lighting because of this (this cheap approach also heavily impacts sound transfer). But in this film the aesthetic behind many of the interior scenes was that of a hack; let's bash the light in and shoot it. There's way too much "flat" lighting. That is, no contrast in the light on faces or objects EVEN THOUGH THE LIGHT SOURCES LEND THEMSELVES TO GREAT POTENTIAL LIGHTING; lighting that could help further the story.<br /><br />Good performances don't make it when they are serving a poor story in a technically flawed movie.