In 1904, in Dublin, James Joyce chats up Nora Barnacle, a hotel maid recently come from Galway. She enchants him with her frank, direct and uninhibited manner, and before long, he's convinced her to come with him to Trieste, where he has a job with Berlitz. Over time, Nora pulls him through phobias, tolerates his drinking, takes in his brother Stan, and bests Joyce at 'the writin' game' to bring him back to Italy from Dublin where he's gone to open a cinema. But his sexual jealousy threatens the relationship and sends her back to Galway with the children. Is there any way to tame Jim's green-eyed monster? And, will the lad ever get his stories published?
Acting
Susan Lynch's Nora—raw, funny, and miles ahead of the script.
Writing
Dialogue that captures Joyce's wit without drowning in it.
Costume
Nora's evolution from Galway maid to Trieste bohemian.
Director
Pat Murphy
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Nora Barnacle destroyed most of Joyce's love letters to her; the film's explicit correspondence scenes are reconstructed from surviving fragments.
Released the same year as 'Quills' and 'Shadow of the Vampire,' part of a weird 2000 trend of films about monstrous male artists and the women who endured them.
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