Not much of any great interest happens in Dancing At Lughnasa, an otherwise attractive and well-acted adaptation of Brian Friel's celebrated, Tony-winning play. In making the transition from stage to screen, director Pat O'Connor (Circle Of Friends) and his screenwriter, Frank McGuinness, cut the running time in half and opened up to the spectacular Irish vistas, reducing the drama's suffocating intensity to a lot of pretty, toothless nostalgia. Set in a tiny farmhouse in 1930s Ireland, Dancing At Lughnasa concerns five unmarried Catholic sisters—Meryl Streep, Kathy Burke (Nil By Mouth), Catherine McCormack (Braveheart), Sophie Thompson (Emma), and Brid Brennen—whose lives change when their missionary brother (Michael Gambon) is called back from Uganda after losing touch with reality. As the eldest, Streep runs the household like a tyrant, forbidding her siblings to attend the Harvest Dance, a pagan ritual she views as a moral affront. Their isolation and repression is meant to take on tragic proportions, but O'Connor's sentimental touch makes it seem as if little is at stake; only the wistful voiceover narration serves as a reminder that anything has changed. Dancing At Lughnasa has moments of humor and insight, and the cast more than acquits itself (McCormack and Burke are particularly good), but that's not enough to elevate this wan celebration of resiliency and womanhood into something more substantial.