THEY say the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing: we certainly proved that one here in Ireland by turning a blind eye to the tens of thousands of girls and women condemned to a life of servitude in Catholic Church run workhouses and laundries for ‘immoral’ behaviour.
Our national disgrace was the focus of Claire Keegan’s award-winning 2021 novel Small Things Like These, a book in which a troubled mid-1980s coalman slowly gathers the courage to take a stand against the all-powerful Church in his insular Co Wexford town.
Now, the novel has been brought to the big screen by acclaimed playwright Enda Walsh as a vehicle for Cillian Murphy, who plays the lead role of Bill Furlong in this Tim Mielants-directed adaptation.
The Oscar-winning Co Cork actor’s soulful countenance and magnetic screen presence are required to do just as much heavy lifting as his coal sack-lugging character, a rugged yet gentle man of few words: happily, Murphy is well able for it, in a film which would fall hopelessly flat with a less capable player as its lynchpin.
However, Bill’s still waters run deep. In an era well before the world became obsessed with mental health preserving self-care, he is bravely white-knuckling his way through the lingering after-effects of a major childhood trauma while working hard to provide for his wife, Eileen (Eileen Walsh), and their five girls.
The Oscar-winning Co Cork actor’s soulful countenance and magnetic screen presence are required to do just as much heavy lifting as his coal sack-lugging character
This seismic event has left Bill with anxiety issues and made him hyper-aware of the suffering of others - especially when the Church might be an antagonist.
When the kindly coalman witnesses a tearful, terrified teenage girl (Cookstown actor Zara Devlin) being thrust into the hand of the nuns who run the local ‘convent’ - a barely disguised Magdalene laundry and workhouse next door to the Church-run school his daughters are attending - his conscience is well and truly pricked.
Sadly, in real life, it would take many more years for the scales to fall away nationwide.
Indeed, this being 1980s Ireland, it would be a brave man who’d dare tangle with the local penguins and their Rosary beads-wrangling paymasters. Even Bill’s wife tells her “soft-hearted” partner to leave well alone, summing up the national attitude when she advises “if you want to get on in this life, there are things you have to ignore”. After all, their own children’s education and future prospects could be jeopardised if Bill ‘makes trouble’.
“What if it was one of ours?” he implores, not unreasonably.
Key to the story at hand is the coalman’s upbringing: Bill’s mother only narrowly escaped the clutches of the nuns when she got pregnant out of wedlock, a situation we gradually learn more about via flashbacks in which we meet the young Bill (Louis Kirwan), his mum Sarah (Agnes O’Casey), her wealthy and kindly war widow employer Mrs Wilson (Co Derry actor Michelle Fairley) and their gardener, Ned (Mark McKenna).
Small Things Like These is a contemplative, absorbing watch in which the audience becomes totally invested in the growing anguish of its central character, a role Murphy tackles with just as much commitment as his Academy Award-winning portrayal of J Robert Oppenheimer.
As events unfold, the immersive sound design captures Bill’s reactive breathing, ensuring viewers are totally in-step with the coalman’s mounting anxiety as he wrestles with his overwhelming urge to do the right thing - a determination which eventually leads to a tense face-off with steely-gazed head penguin, Sister Mary (Emily Watson), Mother Superior of the ‘convent’, who of course underlines just how difficult she could make life for his family.
Some of the film’s imagery might be a little on the nose - safe to say the many scenes of hand-scrubbing aren’t just about removing that tricky to shift coal dust - but you’ll savour another riveting performance by Murphy in a powerful, well-told tale that makes us wish there had been a few more brave Bills about the place in the bad old days.
Rating: 4/5
Small Things Like These is showing at QFT Belfast now. See queensfilmtheatre.com for tickets and showtimes.
"I was so rapt, so caught up in this film, that I wasn’t aware that it was going to be the ending until the screen faded to black. It is an absorbing, committed drama." ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Guardian
— Queen's Film Theatre (@QFTBelfast) October 28, 2024
Small Things Like These opens FRIDAYhttps://t.co/aRVOia6TII pic.twitter.com/D6WIQfLmD2
