Herself

In tone and aesthetic, Phyllida Lloyd's 'Herself' is reminiscent of dramatic, intimate films by Ken Loach or Mike Leigh. Sadly, neither the script nor the treatment of the story are up to the task of the great films directed by those veteran British filmmakers. While it has its good intentions, solid performances, and is well-told by the filmmakers who obviously have invested an inkling of heart into the effort, the film serves up some clichés and struggles to maintain a balance between a heartwarming story of a mother's love and commentary on a system that stacks the odds against the victim.

... but ultimately empowering, inspiring, enabling and encouraging, that from a beaten and broken relationship, with all the odds overwhelmingly in opposition, the spirit and drive to fight and survive remains, through an incredibly realistic performance from Clare Dunn who builds a performance of immense authenticity, courage and determination.

My wife and I managed to watch this on Amazon streaming movies. With the at times thick Irish accent we didn't always understand the dialog but it was still clear what was going on.

A nice, caring, and hard-working mother of two girls has an abusive husband, the kind that will be very caring at times but when angry will get very physically abusive. She has no choice after one especially violent beating, she has to move out and get government help with housing, typically a hotel room.

She works two jobs, one of them helping to care for an older lady doctor who, when she found out about the situation, offered the land behind her house, if the lady wanted to build her own house. So with the internet and lots of friendly volunteer help, the house went up.

We found this to be a very worthwhile movie, even though we see some of the abuse depicted most of the movie is the mother finding ways to care for her girls and get on with rebuilding her life, literally and figuratively.

I liked it -much more than previously expected, actually.

Might anyone help me to know, what's the Irish word Aido uses at the end of the movie? Something like 'Mahha' to my ears, regarding helping people each other.

I think It was ameaningful word but couldn't find It out!!

"Ask better questions."

An Irish accent is going to get an extra half star from me by default because I think that it is a beautiful accent. Though it became predictable after a certain point, I still thought that the film was executed well. Nothing particularly stood out as fantastic, but that it isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it. There were moments that had me on the edge of my seat. For the sad story that it was, it ended on a great note that I thought was hopeful.