SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Michelle Fairley, Clare Dunne, Helen Behan, and Emily Watson
Director: Tim Mielants
ADRIANO
Have you ever watched a movie that you've mentally checked out on, but around the 40-minute mark (for a 90-minute movie), it finally starts to pique your interest? Well, that's Small Things Like These, an unfocused, poorly paced film that, while it does sport excellent performances from the entire ensemble, just kinda slags for the most part. I felt very little for anybody in this movie, partly because of how it decided to focus on the protagonist. When it did finally begin to get interesting, it was just too late. It's certainly not an awful movie, but I'll never see it again.
KATIE
Small Things Like These is a reverent, gracefully melancholic film that is deeply effective in exploring the shocking history of The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, exposing the quiet complicity that perpetuated the Church’s abuse. Cillian Murphy’s performance as Bill is sombre and quietly gripping, and his character seems to physically buckle under the weight of the silent burden that he and countless other people in the community carry out of fear and shame. His expression and tormented eyes convey an immense sense of guilt and trauma, and I was completely swept up by the emotional intensity and tragic drama.
