THE MYSTERIOUS CAITLIN McIVER

The spell cast by free spirit Caitlin McIver sinks somewhere between the stereotypically contrasting lifestyles of her gypsyish musical Scots clan and James Jamison's compulsively achieving, upwardly mobile parents. James (he's American despite the name) is little more than a funnel for his parents' ambitions until he meets Caitlin and is so attracted to her large, shabby family that he begins hanging around the antique store which the McIvers are (mis)managing for a relative and eventually decides to give up a long-promised week in Switzerland to tour the boondocks with the McIver family singers. The background mixture of antiques and ceilidh music is a pleasing distraction, but it won't let you forget that the characterizations contain as much malarkey as whimsy.