Noble (15A) ***  

Born into poverty and difficult family circumstances, Dubliner Christina Noble survived many trying episodes in her life to fulfil an unlikely ambition  -  to help and educate hundreds of Vietnam’s vulnerable so-called street children.

It’s the kind of story that film makers love  -  but one that, in the wrong hands, can come across as trite and clichéd on the big screen.

For the most part, Noble avoids these potential pitfalls, primarily because it displays the same sort of empathy as the remarkable women whose story it tells.

The movie initially hammers home a bit too obviously the similarities between her own tough childhood and those of the children she wants to help.

But there’s no denying what a tough childhood it was. One of six kids growing up in Dublin with an ill mother and colourful but alcoholic father, it’s not long before Christina’s family circumstances fall apart.

The movie brings home the extraordinary amount of misfortune Noble faced, with a gang rape resulting in an unplanned pregnancy and a stint in a Magdalene Laundry.

While many films would be heavy handed with this subject matter, in this case it’s the most powerful part of the film, thanks mainly to a powerful performance from rising Cork star Sarah Greene.

It’s so moving that the story of the older Christina’s fight to help the kids in Vietnam initially struggles to keep up.

It’s evident in her legacy -  to this day, Noble’s work continues to mean that hundreds of homeless children across Asia are given food, shelter and education.

Deirdre O’Kane captures Noble’s personality and there’s strong support too from Mark Huberman as a businessman living in the city and Brendan Coyle, who may bring her charity the benefactors she needs.

 

Magic in the Moonlight (PG) ***

MOVIES don’t come much lighter than Woody Allen’s latest, a jaunty comedy set in the picturesque South of France in the 1920s.

Some of the great filmmakers’ most-loved hallmarks are there  -  the zippy dialogue, the fine performances he gets from his cast.

But coming just a year after the brilliant Blue Jasmine, this feels a tad slight and doesn’t rank up there with his best films.

Still, a mid-table Allen movie can still bring many pleasures. And Colin Firth makes the very most of a great role as snippy Brit Stanley Crawford.

A renowned illusionist who goes under the stage name of Chinese conjuror Wei Ling Soo, success has made him a deeply arrogant man who’s his own greatest fan.

And when a colleague (Simon McBurnley) asks for his support in exposing a clairvoyant (Emma Stone) who has hookwinked a family of wealthy aristocrats, he travels to the South of France determined to see through her tricks.

The dialogue – most of it delivered with great timing by an on-form Firth and strong support from the great Eileen Atkins as his wise aunt – zips along.

The sunny 1920s setting looks wonderful on the big screen too, and does much to paper over the film’s somewhat limited storyline.