If you want to know more about James Joyce, read Ulysses.

If you want to know more about the woman behind the man and life with an artist, go to see Nora. This is a sexy, fascinating look at the life led by Joyce and Nora Barnacle, the woman who became his lover, wife and muse.

Ewan McGregor plays Joyce and Susan Lynch is Nora; their story begins in Dublin in 1904. Miss Barnacle has already run away from home in Galway to avoid the convent, and has work as a barmaid. Joyce is a struggling writer. They meet, they squeeze, they run off to Trieste.

Unlike the genteel Merchant-Ivory approach, where much is suggested but little revealed, Nora is an earthy and wildly energetic character study that shows fears and flaws and fights.

Snubbed by some of Joyce's more intellectual friends (but pursued by others for her honesty and passion) Nora comes across in this film as the one person who gave balance to Joyce's life.

His brother Stannie (Peter McDonald) may have paid Joyce's bills or carried him home from the pubs when he was drunk, but he still respected his older brother's brilliance. Nora felt no such reservations when she felt that Joyce deserved to catch hell for one transgression or another.

Joyce was, according to this movie, fearful, petty, jealous and childish. Luckily, Miss Barnacle had enough cojones for them both.

Pat Murphy's Nora is beautifully filmed, but it's not about set decoration. Turn-of-the-century goings on are mostly re-created in the dialogue. How a woman of that era did what Nora Barnacle did is the jaw-dropping wonder. It is impossible not to think about how Nora would have been played had the director not been a woman.

Nora is focused on the period of time in Joyce's life before he became famous. It's an interesting notion, to examine the artist's struggle and the warts 'n' all scenario that took place before his transformation into public figure. Nice to know he and Nora had such an interesting sex life, too.

(This film is rated AA)

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