Some Fish Can Fly

You know there's going to be trouble when a movie's opening narration (by director Robert Kane Pappas) compares the story we're about to see to Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra without so much as a trace of irony. Still, this romantic comedy about aspiring American filmmaker Kevin (yes, another irritatingly self-reflexive protagonist in an indie film) who falls for sweet young Irish girl Nora (Nancy St. Alban, with a dubious accent) goes down fairly easily, if one can ignore a couple of things. First, we're not given much evidence as to why these two are so in love with one another, and second, that Kevin (Kevin Causey) chooses to make a film about his new girlfriend after spending only one night with her, in a subplot that gets increasingly tedious and goes nowhere. The film's Irish co-producer, Miriam Foley, manages to swing some picturesque locations in County Cork, but why then could she not find a convincingly Irish actress to cast in the lead? The film seems to be making a point about the low success rate of long-distance relationships, but the narrator's final musings about fate and alternate dimensions are enough to give Rod Serling a serious workout as he spins in his grave.