Small Things Like These

A friend of mine used to own a big gay bar in Dublin, and I recall being in it the day that marriage was legalised in Eire. One of the women celebrating was telling us of her childhood at the hands of the nuns in the 1970s. It was a ghastly story of women who hadn't an ounce of compassion between them all, and this film picks up that cudgel and swings it squarely at what it is little better than a religious equivalent of a Dickensian workhouse. The story is told from the perspective of local coal merchant "Bill" (Cillian Murphy) who lives with his wife and five daughters in a small town in Co. Wexford. Nobody has much money and some are reduced to gathering wood from the forest floor to heat their homes. By comparison, his family are quite well off and with Christmas looming all are anticipating a good family time. He supplies the local convent-cum-orphanage where the unwed girls of the community are deposited when they get in the family way, and it's here that he encounters a young lass locked in the coal shed. Freezing and terrified, he wonders how she got herself trapped in there - and that's where the story starts to focus on not just the inhumanity that prevailed, but on the internecine, web-like, tendrils of a church that brooked no resistance or interference. If you want a "peaceable life" then you'd best leave well alone. Can he, though? He is frequently reminded of his own childhood. One of tragedy, kindness, an hot water bottle and a jigsaw puzzle. "Bill" is a troubled man who has much to mull over as his conscience refuses to accept the societal compromises even his wife (Eileen Walsh) might prefer he adopt in the face of what he has now witnessed. This is definitely a less-is-more film, with an effective paucity of dialogue and a sense of oppressiveness that frequently overwhelms with it's simplicity. The setting demonstrates a degree of menace way more poignantly than any horror film, but horror this is - and an illustration of cruelty in it's most devastatingly subtle form. Murphy shines here, his performance allows his character to take us with him as we all observe a scenario unfold that might not have been out of place in 1885 - but in 1985? Not an easy watch, but well worth ninety minutes of your time.

In 1985 devoted father of 5 Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent and uncovers shocking truths of his own.

As my title says, this is a very tricky film to review. It's a heartfelt project which raises issues that cut deep in the religious country of Ireland. The Magdalene Institutions on which it is based, took in women and girls who were pregnant outside of marriage, sex workers, orphans, or just women who did not conform to social expectations of that time. They were typically worked hard and kept in austere circumstances, but the truth of the "Magdalene Laundries" run by nuns of the Roman Catholic faith, came out only when the buried remains of hundreds of women were found. And yet for decades there was talk about these inhuman institutions, run almost like workhouses or even prison camps by the nuns. And no-one did anything as the church was too deeply embedded in society. In the film Bill is warned not to say anything about what he witnessed at the convent, "because the nuns have fingers in everywhere, and if word got out it would backfire on you." And that's how it actually was, we know now. The nuns were evil, brutal women who sought not to rehabilitate, but exact vengeance on women they saw as unfit.

Now, the film reveals a little of that, but only a little. The manner in which it is filmed actually does not help it's message. Cillian Murphy spends a lot of the time in his scenes looking at the ground, or having flashbacks, and it is so much time that he is silent that I almost turned it off. I get that they were trying to offer some trauma from his childhood that explained why he intervened with the convent, but the message was almost lost in the long spans of...frankly...tedious nothingness. There was only 1 girl who we saw being mistreated so it would be easy to say, well all the other ones were treated much better. We now know they were not, but the film doesn't show that. They have taken an arty sort of approach which promotes the film, not the subject of the film.

That's why I think the film is tricky to review. On one hand it's beautiful cinema, albeit with too many, too-long pauses and introspective moments. On the other it is bringing...poorly...a deeply worrying and saddening message about the Magdalene Laundries. So for cinematic I would rate it one way, for the message it was trying to get across I would rate it much less, for the wasted 20 minutes on pauses that were unnecessary, and some flashbacks which being honest, I didn't even understand properly, I would rate it even less again.

I enjoyed it on some level but I think when you review a film of true events that caused trauma to countless thousands of young women over 70 years, you have a responsibility to make it the very best it can be. Front of stage, all of the time, should not be a coalman and his emotions, it should be the women who suffered. I finally decided on a score of 6, but I think I am rating it higher than I feel it should be, because the story...the true story of the Magdalene women, needs to be heard. I would love to see a better version.

It took me a couple of days to process this movie. To all who asked me "did you like it?" I could not give an answer. I didn't like it and I didn't not like it for a simple reason, it's so absorbing, such a meditative experience that I just internalised it. There were times I realised I did not breath for a few seconds during scenes, other moments were I found myself smiling, some moments when I could feel the heaviness on my chest. It's the Ireland of the dark ages, when you start watching this movie you might feel you are in the 50s but really you are in the mid 80s, people were lucky if they had a job and warm place to sleep in, the Catholic Church ran the show and was so infiltrated in the institutions that they controlled education and therefore shaped the culture of the time. So we have this story, which unfortunately is a real one, that takes place in New Ross, Ireland. It's a small village, the movie makes a fantastic job in getting you into the oppressive atmosphere, even by showing the main character Bill Furlong doing very repetitive working tasks at the beginning, it's all part of getting you into the mood. Small village, close minded, everyone knows everything and anyone. Perception is crucial, show your best side, keep the bad hidden, omologate, don't think out of the box. And repeat. We meet Bill Furlong in the middle of a nervous breakdown, he was the fatherless child of a young mother, who was lucky enough to be raised by the woman his mother worked for. He has a hard childhood because despite being raised by a woman of money he does not belong to that world and the times are not kind to a fatherless child. He is trying to reckon with his past when one day delivering coal at the convent of the village he find a girl in the cold shed left there overnight. His struggle between personal interests and doing the right thing is powerful, he has 5 girls and the nuns control education and therefore the future prospects of his talented girls that he loves and worked his whole life to provide for, and doing the right thing, moral and ethic also putting on top of that that his mother could have been one of those girls if she wasn't as lucky to be taken in by a kind person. He is forced to look the other way, ignore other people suffering for the good of his own family, but when looking the other way is someone that understands pain, someone that has been there and knows what it means, looking the other way becomes so much harder. It's beautifully shot to highlight dark and gloomy to match the heavy tone of the story, I found the use of the blurring lenses incredible and key to the storyline, when you see something you do not want to see, that you want to block out. Scene with Eileen in the living room is such an incredible example: she is listening but ignoring, really she doesn't want to know. Eileen Walsh is absolutely phenomenal in portraying this woman who for a while you kind of think she's a coward but then you understand she is scared, she is doing that for the good of her family, how to blame her. Emily Watson is terrifying, she emanates power every word she utters without even making a move, she's towering even to a strong man, a great metaphor for the Catholic Church that managed to put into submission entire countries for centuries. Cillian Murphy, for one hour and thirty minutes, reminds you why he was given an Oscar six months ago. He was born with a gift and thankfully he decided to share it with the rest of us. I realised only after watching it that he probably has 10 minutes of talking time in the movie but it feels like he has 3 hours, because what he communicates with silence, with his face, with his pauses is absolutely out of this world. There is a scene he is driving his truck and stops and stays in breathing that I realised when it was over that I had not been breathing for the whole scene. If this movie was given a bit more attention by Lionsgate it could have been his second Oscar.

The silence of the movie is resounding, the absence of a strong soundtrack to enhance emotions is a choice, it's not your tears that they are going for, it is raw emotion. The movie is driven not by its plot but by its message, which is not judgemental, but invites you to think. The movie ends when the story begins, just like the book. But the message is so powerful and the dilemma so hard, that you spend two days questioning yourself what would you have done if you were Bill Furlong? A reflection on our society past and present, a must see, a small little work of art.

This sombre insightful drama takes us back to an earlier Ireland, a long way from the young vibrant and open society of today, an Ireland (well, to be accurate, Irish republic) where the Catholic Church dominated life culture and even politics, as it had done since the 1920s. Ordinary folk were either brainwashed into submission or intimidated into repressed poverty stricken acceptance of the status quo. It really does seem that it largely was like that.

We've seen other films, in particular The Magdalene Laundry, about the practice of sending young women who became pregnant 'out of wedlock' to convents where their babies were taken away at birth, and the women 'enslaved' into the Laundry, ostracised by all. Cruel and vindictive, this went on until 1998!

Cillian Murphy plays an ordinary family man with five daughters in country Ireland who runs a coal supply firm, its 1985. He sees without really understanding all that's wrong around him and how young women are treated. When delivering to a convent he chances upon its cruelties and he recalls his own difficult early life, and tries to take action in what is a severely compliant almost closed society.

It's sombre, low key, and it took me time to understand, but this slow burn approach pays off as I gradually understood how through the central character we experience his world and realise just how wrong so much of it all seems. It's heart rending stuff, truthful, and dark, particularly the malevolent portrayal of the nuns, with a great turn by Emily Watson. The film will not cheer you up, but it's an important historical reflection on a world thankfully has now disappeared.

'' Small Things Like These '' is a film based on a novella by the same title from the author Claire Keegan and, trully, it follows the book closely, presenting the story with a straight storyline and only a few flashbacks.

The story is quite moving, intriguing, sad, melancholic, and yet, hopeful and it overall feels like Christmas. The atmosphere is spot on, the cinematography brilliant, even the camera lenses were just the right ones to give the story that perfect setting.

In addition, the performances by everyone in the cast were briliant, but Cillian Murphy is just the right man for the right role in this one.