Soft Irish accents and good intentions aren’t enough to save the poky Irish drama “Stella Days,” set in a small town on the cusp of change in the 1950s.

Martin Sheen, whose mother came from Ireland, gets back to his roots by playing a liberal-minded clergyman who lets his love of movies interfere with his calling. Trying to bring a cinema to his town, he tangles with a politician (played with much huffing and puffing by Stephen Rea) who opposes the cinema as the devil’s work and gets embroiled in the life of a young teacher (Trystan Gravelle).

Sheen’s throwback portrayal is appealing enough, but flat characters, dull revelations and uninvolving complications make this deliberately small film feel nearly microscopic.