What comes to mind when you think of Ireland? James Joyce, Guinness, stew, your great great great grandmother who might have been born there. In contemporary times, it’s probably Paul Mescal’s GAA shorts, Sally Rooney’s gutwrenching notes on love, or Martin McDonagh getting Irish actors to cosplay what the rest of the world thinks of us. Ireland has garnered a reputation for being a jovial, welcoming, and mostly harmless territory, and that’s not inaccurate. We’re kind to tourists and we know how to celebrate. We’re protective of our culture because we had to protect it from theft and erasure at the hands of the British Empire for hundreds of years. But we’ve been reduced to this, resulting in years of misrepresentation in all mediums, especially cinema.

That’s what makes Tim Mierlants’ Small Things Like These such a special but harrowing film. It’s one of the most accurate portrayals of Irish life, and it also peels back that happy-go-luck spirit that other countries define us by. Ireland has a decades-long history of covering up the atrocities committed by the Catholic Church, particularly its activities surrounding the Magdalene Laundries. For those lucky enough to not have heard this term before, the Magdalene Laundries were Church-ran homes that took in “fallen women” — meaning unmarried women who fell pregnant, even if they were victims of rape and incest — and forced them into slave labor. Many women had their children taken from them and sold abroad, and they did not receive accurate post-partum healthcare. In short, it was a system of torture and slutshaming that the Church was able to distort and present as a charitable effort.

The Cillian Murphy-starring adaptation, like the original book by Claire Keegan, is not a history lesson or confrontation of the inner workings of a religious body that committed some of the most heinous crimes in the history of the Irish state. It looks at how a society let this happen; at how the corruption and power of the Catholic Church silenced and deluded an entire nation into thinking the captivation and torture of women was in their best interest. And within all this, it’s a story of how one man is able to look up from the crowd and try to do better.

What Is ‘Small Things Like These’ About?

Bill Furlong (Murphy) is your average blue-collar worker on the surface. He runs a coal company in rural Ireland in the mid-1980s, and his days rarely change. He goes to work, he gets his lunch at the local pub, and then he comes home to his doting wife Eileen (Eileen Walsh), and his five daughters, who are all still in school. Bill is a man trying to be the best version of himself. He gives the local drunk’s son spare change, and he can’t help but give everyone the benefit of the doubt. One day in the run-up to Christmas, when he’s delivering coal to the local convent, he witnesses a screaming young woman, Sarah (Zara Devlin), being forced into the building by her mother.

On repeat trips to the convent, he continues to see distressing scenes, as Sarah pleads for him to help her escape. This causes Bill to start looking back on his own life, as Bill’s mother, also named Sarah (Agnes O’Casey), could’ve easily had the same fate as the present-day Sarah. The intimidation and threat of the Mother Superior Sister Mary (Emily Watson), is a foreboding reminder to Bill of the pecking order, and how being a good person has a large price. From there, it feels like one man vs. the world, as Bill must decide between what is right and what is convenient.

Enda Walsh and Tim Mierlants Bring Clare Keegan’s Stunning Novel to Life
Image Via Lionsgate

Not to be too on the nose, but the merit of Small Things Like These comes in the small things. Enda Walsh, one of Ireland’s premier playwrights, grips onto all the same beats as what made Keegan’s original book so compelling. It’s not trying to be The Magdalene Sisters in that it focuses on the torture and graphic consequences of the Catholic Church’s cruelty. But nor is it trying to be overly sentimental to make its plot more digestible, à la Philomena. It really is a snapshot of what it was like to be Irish in a time when society was so cruelly controlled by a governing body that had such sinister intentions.

Walsh’s script also keeps the very enlightening conversations around morality that lie at the center of Keegan’s novel. When Bill tells his wife of the distressing site at the convent, she’s quick to ask him “What do we have to answer for?” Just as Bill tries to have a candid conversation about his anxiety, Eileen dismisses it as him being tired. Irish people are not good at talking about the important things in life, from sex to mental health to the most natural human feelings in the world. This cultural handicap is no doubt a knock-on effect of the stiflingly oppressive air that the Catholic Church created across the country. Small Things Like These realizes how easy it was for people to ignore the plight of others in pursuit of an easy, quiet life. Eileen is not the villain, but she is the collateral damage of the corruption of the higher-ups. This struggle to communicate is just as central to the plot as the Magdalene Laundries, and it’s these small conversations that render a period film utterly (and sadly) timeless.

Mierlants’ directing pairs beautifully with Walsh’s script. Bill is often seen in tight doorframes, with his outline in the coal shed almost being swallowed into the black abyss as we hear the terrified screams of Sarah. Mierlants has a restrained but careful hand over the entire film, knowing exactly what moments are appropriate for more style. When Bill finally comes face to face with the Mother Superior, Mierlants drops us right into a Dracula movie, leaving behind sleepy, calm rural Ireland for an otherworldly house of horrors. Mierlants and Walsh’s work goes hand in hand with the ethos of Keegan’s work — show don’t tell. At no point are we spoonfed feelings. Everything is left for us to catch.

Cillian Murphy Leads an Exceptional Cast in ‘Small Things Like These’

The performance following what many believe to be the defining role of an actor’s career is most likely more nerve-wracking than said role. Cillian Murphy dominated the awards circuit last year with his leading role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. What an actor does next after winning an Oscar is always an interesting question, but what Murphy is doing here is simply reminding us of his power in the quieter characters. Bill is a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, as he wants to do right by his daughters’ futures all while reckoning with his past. In the aforementioned conversation with his wife, Murphy is able to show how excruciating it was for a man of this time to have even the most basic conversation about mental health or anything existential. It’s a tight, gripping performance that doesn’t lend Murphy grand soliloquies, famous co-stars, or impressive setpieces like his last performance. It’s one of the most shattering and masterful presentations of inward acting, as Murphy must communicate an entire life of fears, anxieties, and indignation with extremely minimal dialogue.

Related Cillian Murphy Returns as Tommy Shelby as ‘Peaky Blinders’ Movie Begins Filming The film reunites Murphy with Steven Knight.

Small Things Like These is most certainly Murphy’s film, but that doesn’t take away from the stellar work being done by the supporting cast. Eileen Walsh doesn’t let the complex morality of her character get lost. She delivers one of the most illuminating lines of dialogue in the entire film — “If you want to get on in this life, there are things you have to ignore.” This isn’t a perspective of someone unfeeling or unmoored by those who are in dire circumstances. It is the dogma of someone who realizes the dangers of living a completely truthful existence. Walsh makes sure it’s known that Eileen’s voluntary ignorance is only to protect her family, and stems from a lifelong fear of the Catholic Church’s control.

The restrained nature of the film could have left space for some amount of empathy towards the nuns themselves, but luckily, Emily Watson steps seamlessly into an out-and-out villain role. She plays the Mother Superior as a monster straight out of a Gothic Hammer movie, every word dripping off her tongue with threatening menace. Her manipulation laces every single thing she does, from casually counting money to buy Bill’s silence to her calculated feigning of worry for the girls she mistreats when she’s in front of an audience. It never becomes a caricature, but it captures how feared and corrupt the church was.

‘Small Things Like These’ Exposes Ireland’s Dark History
Image Via Lionsgate

Perhaps the first thought you’ll have as this film starts is “Oh, we’re going back to the ‘40s or ‘50s.” It isn’t until 20 minutes in that you realize it’s actually the 1980s when the screaming Sarah looks right out of a Duran Duran music video. That’s what is most upsetting about the film: It didn’t happen that long ago. 40 years later, the Catholic Church still hasn’t faced the consequences of its actions, and there are people in Ireland who are still not given full clarity about their family or birth. The religious orders have repeatedly refused to contribute to the state-issued compensation scheme for survivors.

I’m not trying to say that Ireland hasn’t changed. No Magdalene Laundries are in operation anymore, same-sex marriage is legal, as is abortion. But watching Small Things Like These, especially as an Irish woman, is a sad reminder of how the influence of the Catholic Church has still not been fully eradicated. Slut-shaming, a less open approach to mental health, and an overall shameful, guilty feeling over the most naturally human feelings and urges are all very present throughout Irish society today. Watching a film like Small Things Like These is a history lesson in why Irish people are the way they are. Compared to some of the U.S.-created “Irish” tripe we’ve got in recent years, the country’s cinematic canon feels more complete now that this movie exists.

Small Things Like These is a microcosm of what it was like to live in a time when the cruelest type of injustice was normalized, and speaking out was demonized. It’s an electric, atmospheric, and deeply soulful look at what it means to be human, what it means to have empathy, and how faith should never come before people. Ireland looks a lot different now in many ways, but after watching Small Things Like These, you realize, it’s not nearly different enough.

Small Things Like These is a quiet but powerful examination of how a seemingly peaceful society could harbor some of the darkest secrets imaginable.ProsCillian Murphy gives one of the best performances of his career, expressing so much with little dialogue.Enda Walsh script’s is a worthy adaptation of Claire Keegan’s detailed novel.Eileen Walsh and Emily Watson give powerful supporting performances. ConsSome of the nuances and finer details may be lost on non-Irish audiences.

Release Date November 1, 2024 Director Tim Mielants Runtime 96 Minutes Writers Claire Keegan , Enda Walsh

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