The Moonlight Runner

An Irish nurse must choose between patriotism and self-preservation in the stirring latest from Robards (Some Murders in Berlin). On Christmas night 1918, 22-year-old Rynn Carmichael is working a shift at Ballyshannon Court on the cliffs of northwest Ireland. A convalescent hospital during WWI, the mansion brims with British officers who have turned their focus to crushing the Irish resistance. When Rynn overhears the officers planning an ambush on a boat of Irish gunrunners, she races to warn them from the shore, knowing from her friend Molly Kincaid that her sweetheart Donal O’Reilly is onboard. Both the shipment and the ambush are botched, and Donal vanishes. Rynn returns to nursing, but when Molly’s body mysteriously washes up on the beach, she’s questioned by the British Crime Special Branch. To deflect suspicion, she accepts a marriage proposal from British lord Thomas Dunne. Though half British, Rynn feels out of place in her new London home with Dunne and is relieved when they return to Ireland less than a year later to avoid the Spanish flu. Robards crafts a well-rounded character in Rynn, who struggles while back in Ireland with whether to sacrifice her comfortable life for the cause of the country she loves. The result is a gripping portrait of the final years before Ireland’s 1921 independence. Agent: Robert Gottleib, Trident Media Group. (Mar.)