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www.boxoffice.com - : Screened at Toronto. ''Let us begin with beauty: The moon in eclipse,'' intones the opening voiceover, and with that bold stroke ''Frankie Starlight'' proclaims its art-house intentions. The story, based on Chet Raymo's novel, seems woven of wonderful threads: After seeing her father killed by Nazis and friends killed by explosion, a young French woman, Bernadette (''Map of the Human Heart's'' Anne Parillaud), is impregnated on an Allied troop ship headed for Ireland and gives birth to a dwarf she names Frankie (Alan Pen-tony). He becomes a student of the stars, just slightly farther out of reach than for most. Befriended by an Irish customs officer (''The Usual Suspects''' Gabriel Byrne) who has a brief affair with his mother, Frankie himself falls in love with the officer's daughter Emma (''An Awfully Big Adventure's'' Georgina Cates), who despises him. A Texan (Matt Dillon) who'd been aboard the troop ship comes calling; Bernadette and Frankie move to the Lone Star State, but a melancholy Bernadette returns to her adopted Ireland and suicides. The now-grown Frankie (Corban Walker) writes a book about his and his mother's lives and gains a fame that crosses his path again with the also grown Emma (Rudi Davies). more...
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