A subdued and sombre mixture of historical fiction and character drama, director Tim Mielants’ adaptation of author Claire Keegan’s award winning novel Small Things Like These is a work of quiet, devastating beauty. Bolstered by tremendous work from recent Oscar winner Cillian Murphy in the leading role, Small Things Like These speaks volumes about faith, sexual equality, and horrific cases of human exploitation, all while centred around a person who doesn’t say much at all. It’s proof that sometimes the best approach to tragedy and hardship is to keep scaling things back until all that’s left are bare nerves.
The year is 1985, and small town Irish coal salesman Bill Furlong (Murphy) is gearing up for the holiday season, both at work and at home with his wife, Eileen (Eileen Walsh), and their four daughters. The son of a single mother who had a hard life, Bill knows all too well what it means to struggle and depend on others, which is probably why he isn’t a chatty fellow. Haunted by memories of his own childhood, Bill has many sleepless nights. On one occasion, he makes his way to the Good Shepherd Convent for a pre-dawn delivery, only to discover a young and pregnant woman (Zara Devlin) forced to live in the supply shed. When he brings this up with the convent’s mother superior (Emily Watson), the head nun tries to not-so-subtly bribe and threaten Bill in exchange for his silence. With the young woman bearing the same name as his mother, but not wanting to draw unwanted attention to himself and his family, Bill is conflicted whether or not he should keep his head down or expose secrets within the church that have been whispered about within the town for decades.
Small Things Like These is set against the backdrop of the Magdalene Laundry scandal, where sex workers and marginalized women were often sent to abusive, dehumanizing church run organizations and exploited for free labour as penance. It might be helpful to know all of that going in because the slow burn start of Small Things Like These (which doesn’t get around to its biggest points until almost the halfway point of a tightly constructed 90 minute running time) isn’t big on providing a lot of context. The details of Bill and the church’s connection to the town are slowly filled in over time, but in the early going, Small Things Like These is a hard film to get into, despite it’s emotional resonance and stunningly accurate period recreations.
In these early stages, it’s up to Murphy to guide the ship, and Mielants couldn’t ask for a better collaborator. The subject matter is made harder to connect with in some respect because the main character is so taciturn and reserved. Bill Furlong isn’t a stoic, often wearing his emotions on his face. Without much in the way of narrative context, Bill becomes the viewer’s guide into the entire situation at hand. Murphy’s talent for understated expression shines brightly here, and he’s able to always convey Bill’s inner turmoil, conflict, and traumas without the need for flowery dialogue. Murphy provides the film with a brightly burning heart that shines like a beacon, despite playing a person who would rather blend into their surroundings rather than speaking out on things publicly.
Small Things Like These is a reunion of sorts for Murphy, co-star Walsh, and screenwriter Edna Walsh, who worked together on Disco Pigs all the way back in 2001, and all seem perfect for the light touch approach to the material provided by Keegan and Mielants. Walsh’s frustrated, concerned, and devoted wife is a wonderful portrait of a woman caught between the needs of her family and the larger desires of the community, offering an exceptional counterpoint to Murphy’s low-key idealist. And although she has limited screen time, Watson is superbly menacing as the embodiment of indoctrinated entitlement. The key supporting players and Walsh’s no-frills approach to a social reform narrative help to elevate a film that has a lot of black spaces.
Small Things Like These could stand to use some perspective outside of Bill’s locked in world view, especially in lieu of any greater context beyond the obvious. Murphy and the cast make the most of this opportunity, but it’s almost lost when everything else on display is so understated and turned down to a whisper. It’s a film that relies heavily on setting and performance, and in those respects. Mielant’s work is ultimately successful.
Small Things Like These opens in select theatres on Friday, November,ber 8, 2024.
