The picture is really split into three stories. The first is how Joseph and Shannon meet. Joseph, blaming Shannon's father for the death of HIS father, seeks to kill the man; however, Joseph's gun backfires and the Christie's--Shannon's family--nurses him back to health.

The second is how Joseph and Shannon run away to America together and what they have to do to make a living. She works in a chicken stripping factory, while he becomes a bar brawler for betting cash. Eventually, the two are kicked out into the streets and Joseph send Shannon back to the family she ran away from, now in America looking for her.

The third part is the Oklahoma Land Race, where acres of Oklahoma were quartered off and hundreds of land seekers were lined up and released to claim acreage where they could. In this race, Joseph and Shannon finally establish their own place in America and begin the bloodline that eventually gave birth to this movie's director, Academy Award® winner Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind).

Yes, the movie is the true romanticized telling of Howard great grandmother and father; a story told to him by his great grandmother personally and supported with press clippings she saved over the years.

The movie is a different kind of Irish coming to America story. The romance between the two main characters was very well paced; however, parts of the movie were not.

Transitions between the three portions of the films slagged severely. Especially going from the second to the third.

The movie is very much an epic, in that it's storyline is about the continuing struggles of certain people, with a consistently changing storyline. So, simply put, it is long.

There's a lot of great sequences in it, and probably the most beautiful shot of Nicole Kidman I've ever seen.

Composer John Williams' score for the picture was also very well written, incorporating the traditionals of the Emerald Isle into his own style of excitement and triumph.

The only other thing I can't stand about the movie is the cliched nemesis character, being Shannon's intended fiancé, played by Thomas Gibson (Eyes Wide Shut). He becomes jealous and tries to kill Joseph, whom he sees as a peasant compared to Irish aristocrats like himself. Yeah, that's never been done before.

I suspect Howard only put that in the script to add conflict to the story, but it was very far from being factual. That part of the story seemed contrived from start to finish.

Overall, this picture is very exciting in spots, REALLY exciting in other spots and extremely slow in a few spots, making it less than perfect. It IS one of my favorite works from director Howard, but not my absolute favorite.

If you've got some Irish in you, you may like this a little more than the next person; however, as Irish movies go, this is very pop. If you want to see a real green-blooded Irish film, watch anything directed by Jim Sheridan.