This couldn't have come along at a more opportune moment. The feature-length documentary about the Dublin-born, mostly New York-based actor was screened on the very day he received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the TV series In Treatment.

In it, Byrne plays a shrink, which is weirdly appropriate in the circumstances, since director Pat Collins's documentary was as close as television comes to allowing someone to analyse their own psyche for the benefit of a mass audience.

There's a lot to be said for baring your soul now and then. But whether doing it in a TV documentary is the wisest course of action, even for a high-profile, immediately recognisable actor, is open to question.

Near the end of Stories from Home, I felt like burying my head in my hands and shouting "no more, please, this is too much". Television profiles are frequently sold on the basis of being an "intimate portrait" of their subject; it usually turns out to be a bogus claim. This one, however, was about as intimate as it's possible to get about a stranger's life, without actually being a part of it. The result was an over-long, sometimes unnecessarily precious film that drifted dangerously close to pretentiousness.

It also felt very uncomfortable a lot of the time, as though we were being invited to intrude on private terrority where we had no right to be. The film opened in the 58-year-old actor's Brooklyn apartment, which had just been flooded -- for the second time, apparently. Byrne called the look of the place "noveau apocalyptic style". This was to be one of the few moments of light relief in an overpoweringly downbeat 90 minutes.

Byrne has made a lot of films. The majority of them are good, a handful are not so good and two -- the Coen brothers' Miller's Crossing and Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects -- are unquestionable classics. Yet beyond some brief clips of Suspects co-star Kevin Spacey treating Byrne to his Al Pacino impression and a smattering of on-set footage from Miller's Crossing, there was little or no time spent on Byrne's long and interesting career.

There was no mention of his work with many legendary directors, and less still of his early career in The Riordans spin-off Bracken, which is where he really came to our attention as a young actor to keep an eye on.

If anything, Byrne -- a deep thinker and, as we already knew, a writer of considerable talent -- appears somewhat uneasy with his past and a little ambivalent towards his roots.

"I feel that in Ireland I'm constantly colliding with the past," he said, "whereas in New York, I feel like I have a clean slate. I'm free to compose my own present, whereas in Dublin I'm constantly being defined by my past."

He's had a rich life, yet from what we could take from this film, it's not been without its fair share of regrets.

He discreetly and touchingly recalled his 10 years with the late, lovely Aine O'Connor, telling how she turned up at his "squalid apartment" in Dublin at 2am, clutching two poodles and a small handbag, "and that was it".

"The real challenge of life is living with the grey days," said Byrne. Stories from Home was a grey, melancholy experience.

- Pat Stacey