Adapted from the James Carney novel, The Playboy and the Yellow Lady, Love and Rage sees Greta Scacchi playing Agnes MacDonnell, a tough Englishwoman with a large estate on Achill Island in the late 1890s. Enter the scheming James (Craig) as her land agent, and drawn to him, MacDonnell also engages in an illicit affair with the mysterious young man. However, it's a liaison that could - considering their age differences, classes and the era - have devastating ramifications. Love and Rage has been sitting on the shelf for the last three years and it's not difficult to see why. While Black has obviously matured as a filmmaker since his earlier forays - Exhibit A, Your Honour, Pigs - Love and Rage, for the most part, is an honourable but dull fare. The involvement of cinematographer Slawomir Idziak, who previously worked with Krzysztof Kieslowski on Three Colours Blue, lends class to the proceedings but the script and direction are somewhat cumbersome and things ultimately become lost in a sea of melodrama.
