In case you missed it, the one and only Meryl Streep has been having quite the spring. The acting icon just had the biggest box-office opening of her legendary career with “The Devil Wears Prada 2“; since hitting theaters on May 1, it has pulled in a whopping $433 million globally and left us wondering with bated breath about when it might come to streaming.
It’s a nostalgia-inducing reprisal of one of her best roles ever, as Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly, but with such an acclaimed and stacked filmography as Streep’s, there’s bound to be loads of lesser-known but equally great performances to discover in the performer’s catalogue. And Meryl’s work in the Irish period drama “Dancing at Lughnasa” is just that, featuring one of my favorite performances from the Oscar-winning star.
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What is ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ about?
Dancing at Lughnasa (1998) Trailer | Meryl Streep | Michael Gambon – YouTube
Directed by Pat O’Connor and adapted by Brian Friel from his 1990 memory play of the same name, “Dancing at Lughnasa” stars Meryl Streep as Kate Mundy, the eldest of five unmarried sisters (Catherine McCormack, Kathy Burke, Sophie Thompson and Bríd Brennan play the other Mundy gals) battling financial hardship and personal differences while living together in a small rural house in County Donegal, Ireland in 1936.
Their close-knit matriarchy is soon interrupted by the arrival of two men — their older brother Jack (Michael Gambon), a missionary experiencing cognitive decline, as well as Gerry Evans (Rhys Ifans), the rakish father of one sister’s son, Michael — an interference that threatens to change the sisters’ relationships forever.
Why you should stream ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ on Tubi
(Image credit: Sony Pictures Classics)
Told from the point of view of Kate’s nephew Michael, now an adult narrating from the present (Gerard McSorley), “Dancing at Lughnasa” is a bittersweet familial drama about how hard it can be to return home, both physically and metaphorically, especially when change and despair are waiting right at the front door.
As the eldest Mundy and the only family member with a steady-paying job, Streep’s Kate has had to choose between collective duty and personal freedom, and the performer beautifully and believably portrays that tension between repression and resilience. (Also, it goes without saying that Streep’s Donegal dialect is pretty much flawless here.)
Janet Maslin of the New York Times agrees, writing all the way back in 1998: “Meryl Streep has made many a grand acting gesture in her career, but the way she simply peers out a window in ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ ranks with the best…Everything the viewer need know about Kate Mundy, the woman she plays here, is written on that prim, lonely face and its flabbergasted gaze.” Consider it just another textbook-great performance from one of cinema’s finest talents.
Watch “Dancing at Lughnasa” on Tubi now
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