Cinema: Pluck of the Irish makes for a heart warming treat; Lew Baxter is delighted with Pierce Brosnan's latest effort,but finds it all goes downhill with the rest of this week's offerings.

Byline: Lew Baxter

SHEDDING his James Bond persona for a wander down the memory lane of Irish angst in Evelyn , Pierce Brosnan retains his trademark twinkle-eyed whimsy but infuses an emotional depth to this true tale.

He is Desmond Doyle, whose wife runs off with a scallywag, leaving him to handle his six kids; or as the Irish State insisted in the hazy,lazy early 1950s, when supposedly a cleaner age of innocence was abroad,he could visit them in care. No single parents allowed,and certainly not a bloke.

They where whisked away from him and their home in the infamous Fatima Mansions in Dublin - council properties of dubious desirability - to be reared under the watchful gaze of convent nuns.

Doyle decides to take on the Minister of Education and fight for his children.

Brosnan is very believable and acceptable in the role of the extremely handsome painter and decorator Desmond, and his daughter Evelyn - who wrote a best seller based on her dad's struggle - attests that her daddy certainly was a grand looking man.

There is a warm and sympathetic understanding between Brosnan and the 10-year-old Sophie Vavasseur, who takes on the role of Evelyn with vigour and enthusiasm.

The story became a `cause celebre' in Ireland at the time and Desmond a folk hero of sorts, eventually beating the system with the help of the new lady in his life - Julianna Margulies beautifully underplaying the part - and her solicitor brother Michael (corking stuff from Stephen Rea).

Into the fray marches their Irish American pal - and lawyer - Nick (AidanQuinn in feisty form), who quickly hauls in the help of distinguished legal boffin Tom Connolly. The screen fizzes when Alan Bates, as Tom, is first encountered; a larger than life performance for a real life larger than life Dublin character.

We are wallowing in the heartrending sort of guff that the Americans would stuff with angelic choirs and schmaltz,but the Irish pack this with boozy singalongs, scuffles with nuns and a humdinger of a court case. When Evelyn Doyle first saw the movie she cried. You might well do the same yourself as Brosnan and the kids work a certain magic that demands a pocket full of hankies.

Just Married is advertised as America's number one box office hit. One can only wonder what American audiences were thinking about.

Basically,it is the story of a disastrous honeymoon in which a newlywed couple fall out of love when things go wrong.

He is played by Ashton Kutcher, an actor currently hosting an MTV show and said to be an American Jeremy Beadle. His performance in Just Married suggests he would be better hanging on to his TV job.

In the film he is a late-night radio presenter who runs into Brittany Murphy on the beach. Well, he accidentally hits her on the head with a football, to be exact.

She is a blonde-haired rich kid,he the happy-go-lucky not-so-rich kid and pretty soon - despite her parents' objections - they are getting married.

Sadly, Kutcher's character is hardly sympathetic; most of the things that go wrong are down to him. He flattens an air hostess when violently opening a door while trying to join the Mile High Club and fuses all the lights in their posh hotel when plugging in a sex toy. He cuts up rough when the management complain and the pair are ejected.

Unable to find another hotel with free rooms, they park in a snow drift overnight. When he throws a snowball at a passing car that declines to stop, the irate driver reverses and backs their car over a cliff. And so on. In the right hands,Sam Harper's script might have had a few laughs, but with Kutcher and Murphy, there are hardly any at all. It is a comedy that seems to take itself very seriously.

There may be an audience for this sort of thing but I suspect most of them are in the USA.

Equally pathetic is comedy thriller National Security about a pair of security guards who take on a crime gang.

Martin Lawrence plays a loudmouthed, anti-white, would-be cop who gets thrown out of the police academy after causing massive destruction on the training site (he runs over the cut-out white figures, leaving the black ones standing). Steve Zahn is a cop who tries to arrest Lawrence when it looks as if he's breaking into a car.There's an argument and when Zahn swats a bee with his truncheon, a passer-by films the action - on tape it looks like Lawrence is being beaten up.

Lawrence actually goes along with the lie and is delighted when Zahn loses his job and gets locked up for six months.

Later we discover the pair have both become security guards. Lawrence plays a bigoted sexist whose idea of fun is frisking the office secretary and getting her to do her own body search. Zahn, trying to track the killer of his former partner, is just inconsequential.

On the plus side, there is a lot of exciting stunts car chases and pile-ups.

But the crime story is right out of an old Z-grade movie and the whole thing falters on its less than -appealing central performances.

the verdict

Evelyn (Cert PG): stars PierceBrosnanand Aidan Quinn; director Bruce Beresford.95mins.95mins.Rating **** Just Married (Cert 12a): stars AshtonKutcher and Brittany Murphy; director Shawn Levy.97 mins. Rating **National Security (Cert 12a): starsMartin Lawrence and Steve Zahn; director Dennis Dugan.88 mins.Rating **

CAPTION(S):

Strong performances from young and old complement the stirring true life drama of Evelyn (mainpic),but comedies Just Married (left)and National Security (right) simply go for cheap laughs - and find even that simple task a struggle at times