“Do the right thing.” It’s a phrase parents drill into their children along with “speak up for those who can’t.” But as we grow, the actual practice of doing either of those things becomes harder and harder with more strings attached. Director Tim Mielants and Cillian Murphy explore those ideas in his adaption of Small Things Like These about a man faced with a difficult choice after stumbling upon abuses at a Magdalene Laundry in 1980s Ireland.
Fresh off his Oscar win for Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy opts for a more understated narrative in Small Things Like These. Based on Claire Keegan’s 2021 novel of the same name, the story follows Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and father of five daughters. Catholic and having grown up with a single, unwedded mother, he has made a comfortable life for himself.
While delivering at the local convent one early morning, he discovers a pregnant teenager locked in the coal shed. He brings her back to the nuns, only for his concerns to be dismissed and that the girl was out there by mistake. As Bill tries to move on, the reminder of his mother’s past, the women around him, and his conscience prevent him from forgetting what he saw.
Murphy is brilliant in this film. Giving a masterful and quiet performance, his eyes have never worked harder. Both he and director Tim Mielants operate in the uncomfortable silences and this film is ripe with them. You are constantly wondering what Bill will do and what hushed conversations will he have next.
Emily Watson is a quiet menace as the Mother Superior. There is such righteous anger and hatred in her eyes. Her Sister Mary is terrifying. You never doubt her performance for a second, just like you never doubt that women like this existed in the 80s, just as they do now.
Over the last two or three years, multiple films and television episodes chronicling the abuses of residential schools in colonized communities have been released. Sugarcane and Reservation Dogs dove into this history in Canada and the US. We Were Dangerous looks at a group of Maori girls living with a cruel mistress in New Zealand. I’m not going to speculate why these stories of suppression and systematic abuse seem to be released clustered together. But what Small Things Like These offers is a beautifully crafted and brilliantly acted film that feels both hopeful and revolutionary.
Small Things Like These is in theaters now via Lionsgate.
