The small, Irish fishing village depicted in God’s Creatures will look familiar. Many a working class drama has taken place in similar locations and following similar people who base their lives around family, faith, and hard work. And while the people are momentarily rocked early on by a drowning death, the way they quickly bounce back is a show of their resiliency. But even for people like them, some wounds are too deep to heal.
Directors Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer focus on the mundane aspects of daily life, and how they can conceal a bubbling tension, an impending evil. The always-great Emily Watson stars as Aileen, a mother who toils every day at a factory where the sounds of fish and oysters flopping into buckets becomes just part of the background. It’s amazing how quickly you get used to it. Life isn’t easy, either at work or at home where she cares for her catatonic father. But things begin to look up with the return of her wayward son, Brian (rising star Paul Mescal), who has come home after a stint in Australia. In places like this, the youth are quick to leave home and seek greener pastures elsewhere. When they return home, it usually means something has gone terribly wrong.
Brian’s arrival precedes a terrible crime against local songbird, Sarah (Aisling Franciosi), and he quickly becomes a suspect. God’s Creatures paints a painful, bleak picture of how such a tight-knit community can turn against one of their own, especially in a patriarchal society where women are second-guessed routinely. As Aileen watches Brian’s cavalier attitude, she has to come to grips that she might not know her son as well as she thought. But she is his mother, and is torn between her protective nature, the safety of her community, and the truth staring her in the face. The situation is explored with a starkness as devastating as the crashing waves and as despairing as the gray skies. Watson, one of the most expressive actresses in the world, conveys her weariness and suspicion in her eyes. She’s at the top of her game, ferocious as always, while Mescal is the picture of inscrutability up until the moment he’s not. The film ends on a harrowing note and a fateful, decisive moment that rewards a controlled but tense build.
God’s Creatures is available in theaters and VOD now.
