Rita Tushingham, the it girl of British cinema in the 60's (she made a few pics w/Richard Lester) stars as a young Irish lass who falls in love w/a separated writer played by Peter Finch. Shot in beautiful black & white on Irish locales, this sobering romance hits all the right notes when a love affair sounds good via the heart but makes no sense in the head. Look for Lynn Redgrave (Vanessa's sister) as Rita's roommate & Julian Glover, who's still acting strong (he played one of the maesters on Game of Thrones), as one of Finch's friends.

Girl with Green Eyes seems typical of the period of British "Kitchen-Sink" drama films (I saw it as the 2nd part of a double bill with The Leather Boys and the theme being Rita Tushingham performances, though this is dialed down a little from that turn), and that's what's good but not terribly memorable about it all. It's realistic in some of the basic character interactions, though it has a bouncier/more emotionally-cued up score than the material should have, if that makes sense. It seems like a minor point but Desmond Davis clearly wanted to get a lot of emotional/romantic/tragic pull out of the music by John Addison, and it may have been too much for this lot of realism (how typical this is by the way, it's produced by Tony Richardson).

The story is actually an Irish-Kitchen-Sink movie, though with a couple of British touches: a young girl in Dublin, who originally was from a fairly lower-class farm that was highly religious but working *very* Irish class all the same, is working at a bookstore and finds that there's an author that she would like to meet along with her friend/roommate Baba. Peter Finch is this man, and soon Kate, the girl of the title, takes a real liking to him, and after not too long he to her. So they "hook up", so to speak, and this brings on problems, both external in force (he's technically married with a kid in another country, she's got pressure from her family not to have anything to do with this "Godless heathen), and more about the fact that it's a man who could be old enough, if only barely, to be her father.

This is a story explored in many kind of films, whether it's throw-a-dart-and-hit a Philip Roth story, or of course Manhattan. There's enough chemistry and charm between the two leading people as Tishingham, even dialed down, is delightful, and Finch does a lot playing usually-crusty and mostly sardonic/sarcastic speaking (if there had been a remake some years back I could've seen Alan Rickman in his role), plus Lynn Redgrave being wonderful and funny in her supporting place. But there's not much here that elevates it past its time and place; it's a perfectly fine drama, and it doesn't distinguish itself past some insights, which are only insightful up to a point, that you may need to grow as a person (or can never meet the other on the flipside due to losing "youthful vigor" as an aging man) to have a relationship work sometimes.

There's a nice, tender feeling to the film, Finch and Tushingham make a good pair on screen (precisely because we kind of know, deep down, it's not only not going to work but it can't not ever work, if that makes sense, so let's see them in the little moments) and that should work for anyone looking for that. Although some things that contribute to the 'hasnt-aged-terribly-well' is, say, when the film is edited so early on in their courtship Eugene and Kate talk and one part of a sentence begins in a new location and then another and another, and it feels distracting.

Bitter sweet tale beautifully adapted for the screen by Edna O'Brien from her own novel. It is a difficult subject. a young girl's infatuation with an older married man but the dialogue is so good it even convinces when you initially feel that a scene is unlikely to work. Her inviting him out to tea, her opening his bedroom door are prickly moments dealt with so well they seem perfectly natural. Rita Tushingham and Peter Finch are perfect in their roles and director Desmond Davis' light touch in the first of a short run of successful films ensures that there is almost something magical now and again. Of course, such a subject would be controversial anywhere, anytime but early 60s Ireland it must have been very much a no, no and the film does not avoid this. Indeed it confronts the hypocrisy of family and church very well including a devastating eulogy from the local priest which absolves men from just about anything, except the matter in hand. You can take a girl out of a convent but not the convent out of the girl, is the ardent hope of these primitive souls but perhaps no more as recently uncovered horrors have exposed even greater hypocrisy and criminality in the name of the Lord. In the end the film says more about the making and keeping or changing friends (and lovers) and is a surprisingly insightful outing.