Herself

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.

It's a beautiful emotional movie. Well it has its corny moments but it's still great with a nice story and powerful topics. Lead performance is nice and real. Herself is a very good lovely movie that has a beautifully written story that tackles important topics.

"Herself" (2020 release from Ireland; 97 min.) brings the story of Sandra and her family. As the movie opens, Sandra is playful with her 2 young daughters , but when her husband Gary gets home, he is enraged and beats her up badly. Sandra and her girls leave Gary and find temporary shelter with government help. But things are tough. Sandra works 2 jobs, and still can barely keep things together. Then one day she sees an ad for self-building a house for only 35,000 Euros... At this point we are less than 15 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from British director Phyllida Lloyd, who has previously brought us the excellent "The Iron Lady" and the original "Mama Mia". But in truth, this film is a labor of love from Clare Dunne, the Irish actress who not only plays the lead character Sandra, but also came up with the story and co-wrote the script. It is clear she gives her all in this film. Beware: this is not an easy film to watch, for a number of reasons (the spousal abuse scenes are brutal), but also because of the thick *and authentic( Irish accents, which at times entire sentences went over my head. Apart from the relationship drama, the film also shines a light on an urgent social need in Dublin, namely the lack of affordable housing, But wait, where have we heard this before? Indeed this very theme was also central to the 2018 Irish film "Rosie", starring Sarah Greene. Back to "Herself": much of the film you get this sense of dread, as if yet more bad stuff can happen to Sarah. A comedy this ain't.

"Herself" premiered at the 2020 Sundance film festival, yes exactly a year ago already. Then a little thing called COVID-19 changed the world, and wrecked the movie industry to its core. The movie was given a limited one-week theater run the first week of 2021, before it will shift to Amazon Instant Video. My art-house theater here in Cincinnati thankfully had it on its slate this week. The Tuesday evening screening where I saw this at was attended okay (about 10 people). If you are in the mood for a heavy social and relationship drama, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (if you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

Clare Dunne is excellent in this film. Her vulnerability and trauma are palpable. The story, which she wrote, is a bit formulaic. But it's a worthy film. There are some corny and melodramatic moments. But the heart of the film is true.

... 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.