Evelyn

Set in 1950s Ireland, Evelyn follows Desmond Doyle, a working man whose wife leaves the family the day after Christmas. With no income and no woman at home, he loses custody of his three children to the authorities, and they are placed in Church-run orphanages. His daughter Evelyn and her two brothers grow up apart from their father while he tries to find work and prove himself fit to raise them. Refusing to accept the court's decision, Desmond challenges both the state and the Catholic Church. An old friend, Bernadette, and a lawyer, Nick Barron, help him take on the legal system that separated him from his children.

The film is based on real events in Ireland in 1953. Bruce Beresford directed it from a screenplay by Paul Pender, with Pierce Brosnan producing and starring as Desmond Doyle alongside Aidan Quinn, Julianna Margulies, Stephen Rea, John Lynch and Sophie Vavasseur as Evelyn. It is the fourteenth of twenty films Beresford has directed, following Double Jeopardy and preceding And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself.

On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.1 from 117 reviews, while on TMDB users give it 6.4 from 117 votes, so critics' and audience scores sit close together.