Frankie Starlight is a 1995 film

1995 in film

-Top grossing films:-Events:* March 22 - The Dogme 95 movement is officially announced in Paris by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.* March 28 - Actress Julia Roberts and singer Lyle Lovett announce their plans for separation....

 directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Sir Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 5th Baronet is a British television and stage director and an occasional writer and actor.-Background and early work:...

. The screenplay was written by Ronan O'Leary and Chet Raymo

Chet Raymo

Chet Raymo is a noted writer, educator and naturalist. He is Professor Emeritus of Physics at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachusetts. His weekly newspaper column Science Musings appeared in the Boston Globe for twenty years. This is now a daily blog by him...

, based on the internationally best-selling novel The Dork of Cork (ISBN 0-4466-7000-6) by Raymo.

Plot

Frank Bois writes a successful first novel and finds himself looking back over his life. His mother Bernadette (Parillaud

Anne Parillaud

Anne Parillaud is a French actress, who has appeared in 30 films since 1977.She is best known internationally for her role as Nikita in the movie of the same name.-Biography:...

) was a French woman who, after the death of her friends and family in World War II, hid herself aboard an Allied war ship heading to Ireland, where she exchanged sexual favors for silence among the soldiers who found her on board. A nice customs agent, Jack Kelly (Byrne

Gabriel Byrne

Gabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...

), allowed Bernadette to enter Ireland illegally, and they soon became a couple lovers, even though she was already pregnant from one of the soldiers from the ship.

Bernadette soon gave birth to young Frankie (Pentony), who suffers from dwarfism. As he grew older, Frankie develops romantic feelings for Jack's daughter Emma (Cates

Georgina Cates

Georgina Cates is an English actress of film and television.-Biography:Born Clare Woodgate in Colchester, Essex, she attended Colchester County High School for Girls and broke into television acting when she was only sixteen years old, playing the role of the original Jenny Porter on the BBC's...

), who does not share his feelings, while Jack teaches astronomy to Frankie. Eventually, Bernadette meets Terry Klout (Dillon

Matt Dillon

Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon is an American actor and film director. He began acting in the late 1970s, gaining fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s.- Early life :...

), an American soldier she had met on the war ship, who offers to marry her. Bernadette and Frankie go with Terry to his home in Texas, but both mother and son feel like they don't belong there, so they return to the Irish home they loved. An older Bernadette eventually committed suicide, and Frank used his life as source material for his writing.

Principal cast

Actor	Role
Gabriel Byrne Gabriel Byrne Gabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...	Jack Kelly
Anne Parillaud Anne Parillaud Anne Parillaud is a French actress, who has appeared in 30 films since 1977.She is best known internationally for her role as Nikita in the movie of the same name.-Biography:...	Bernadette
Matt Dillon Matt Dillon Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon is an American actor and film director. He began acting in the late 1970s, gaining fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s.- Early life :...	Terry Klout
Corban Walker	Frank Bois
Georgina Cates Georgina Cates Georgina Cates is an English actress of film and television.-Biography:Born Clare Woodgate in Colchester, Essex, she attended Colchester County High School for Girls and broke into television acting when she was only sixteen years old, playing the role of the original Jenny Porter on the BBC's...	Emma
Dearbhla Molloy Dearbhla Molloy Dearbhla Molloy is an Irish actress of the stage and screen from Dublin.Molloy consolidated her stage reputation at both the Abbey and the Gate theatres, coming to England to tour with an Abbey production. She was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company and has played Gertrude to Kenneth...	Effa Kelly

Critical reception

Janet Maslin

Janet Maslin

Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...

 of The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

thought the film was flawed but decent and did not think highly of Parillaud's acting: