Love and Rage (film)

Love and Rage is a 1998 British-Irish-German drama film directed by Cathal Black and starring Greta Scacchi, Daniel Craig and Stephen Dillane. It is based on the novel The Playboy and the Yellow Lady by James Carney.

A drama of romantic obsession turned violent, Love and Rage was inspired by a true story and partially filmed in the home where the actual events occurred.

Plot

James Lynchehaun (Daniel Craig) works at the estate of Agnes MacDonnell (Greta Scacchi), a wealthy Englishwoman in late 1800s Ireland. Agnes considers her privacy important, but shows flashes of a high-spirited nature among those she trusts, and enjoys scandalizing the locals by being a divorced woman who smokes, drinks, and rides horses astride on her vast property. When James discovers that a local land agent has been cheating Agnes, he shares the information with her. She's grateful to him and they get to know each other a bit better, leading in time to a romantic relationship. James is younger than her, and beneath her social status, but Agnes is a woman who thrives on being seen as scandalous, so she enters into the affair with James with relish and delight. He's a wild man, as well as a bit of a con artist, appearing at the estate in disguise and meeting Agnes dressed as a priest. Agnes doesn't appear to mind this, and at times she actively welcomes it. The fact that they both seem to delight in taunting "proper" society seems to please her that much more.