Cillian Murphy comes back to the screen right after blowing everybody's mind with Oppenheimer, although this movie is nothing close, its a much smaller film but one that still got some punch to it, his action keeps showing his ability to bring deep emotion with very little dialogue. Small Things Like These is set in 1985 Ireland and tells a story that had to be told, as it does so through the eyes of one man who chooses to take a stand against the dark history of the Magdalene laundries. To make things even more tragic, the story is set during Christmas in a small Irish town, Cillian Murphy plays the role of Bill Furlong who run a coal delivery business and take care of his wife and five daughters, but there's so much more going on behind the scenes than just another drama from the period about a working class hero.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Rottentomatoes Rating
The scenery does match the story creating an immersive experience, as it is cold and damp atmosphere of 1980s, I cant tell exactly feels like Ireland because I have never been there but does feel like the 80s based on the way people dress. There is also the lighting and camera work that sets the tone of the movie and in particular the convent scenes. There is something special about watching Murphy's character pass through these dark, grimy corridors and coal sheds, along with the kind of darkness that builds off the lack of light, to be honest a very depressing environment as it needs to be. Director Tim Mielants knows how to take you deep into the feeling of the story so you feel whats going on and from the very start understand that things are not right and women living in this places, often known as "fallen women" are not feeling right there is something that is not OK, director opens up the view often shooting from a distance or on the character through windows and doors, enhancing an impenetrable darkness surrounding this story in every corner.
I don’t know what I was expecting from this movie, probably because of it being set at Christmas but I got something completely different than a happy story, a deeply moving look at how society can turn a blind eye to horrible things happening right in front of us, dark times for sure. From the start I understood this was not going to be a fast pace movie, which is exactly why it works so well in certain way since it takes its time to develop the plot. There are no fast cuts through the story, we’re allowed to spend time with what’s happening and the moral weight of the situation at the Magdalane Laundries through Bill's eyes.
Bill Furlong is a coal merchant who delivers to the local convent, where he stumbles across something that moves him to his core, this sets him up to try to make things right and the plot of this movie is not complicated at all and I guess it doesn't have to be, its either black or white. It’s about a man who’s seen something wrong and he has got to decide if he is going to speak up or just do what everyone else in town is doing. We learn about Bill's own history by flashbacks, his single mother raising him until her death and how he was taken in by a Protestant woman who showed him kindness when others perhaps would not.
When Bill finds Sarah, a young woman locked in the coal shed at the convent the story becomes more intense, this discovery makes him face from first hand a situation that many have been turning there eye the other way, but also his own past and the moral problems that have been bothering him, its shocking how this women were basically force to work but not necessarily by force but also by manipulation. It doesn't shy away from showing just how the Catholic Church's power cover up every part of this small Irish town's life, from education to social norms and the way that power could be used to silence people about the abuses taking place in the Magdalene laundries. Everything blows up for Bill when one morning, doing his deliveries early than usual discovers a teenage girl at the local convent, the girl pregnant locked on a shed, he was shocked and decided there was something going on inside when Sister Mary told him they were playing hide and seek.
Besides the shocking topics the movie touch on, what makes it speciall is the performances and Cillian Murphy leads the way, perhaps one of the best performances of his career so far, I personally enjoy it more than Oppenheimer. Bill Furlong is not the sort of character who requires a lot of talk or dramatic outbursts to tell you the weight of his character's moral struggle. All the little stuff, the way he rubs the coal off his hands at the end of each day as if trying to wash away more than just dirt, the faraway expression in his eyes when he is thinking about his past, the way he holds his body differently when he talks to Sister Mary like he is running out of patience. Emily Watson absolutely nails how Sister Mary comes off as quiet battle of wills with every interaction she and Murphy have and delivers a performance as good, quite funny how its very similar to her recent role as Valya in Dune Prophecy, she does a great job at working out the current of threat and manipulation, even in their politest exchanges, showing off who is in control and power.
There is also Eileen Walsh who is an important character to the story as her role, Bill’s wife, a woman who knows the price you pay for doing the right thing but is also scared of what it means for her family, things get even more complicated to her character when she eventually finds out that Sister Mary try to bribe Bill with money inside a sealed envelop. During most part of the movie she is between wanting to help her husband out, as well as wanting to protect the stability of her family is shocking acting from here. Zara Devlin as Sarah probably the jewel of the crown for this story, the pregnant girl that Bill discovered locked in the coal shed, her fear and desperation felt absolutely real and with all reason justified by the things she go through.
I'm not a drama lover but there is something to the story telling of this movie that kept me interested, not just because I'm also a sucker for historical context but I felt like it still had some very real relevance today in our social environment, it touch on themes of institutional power, moral courage, speaking up for and against injustice at a cost, and depending on everyone situation these are things we often might keep quiet about just like Eileen to keep certain stability either economical or just trying to keep everything in peace until one day is too late and things just happen. I felt there is no agenda or pushing messages on the movie as it actually shows us what happened and leaves it up to the audience of what we would do in Bill’s position, its not trying to make you think certain way but ask yourself what would you do, but what makes it even more powerful and close to the ground, is that these Magdalene laundries were not some far off historical tragedy, the last one closed in 1996 and that is very recent, at first I had not context of the movie since I jump into it because of Cillian Murphy, another reason why it makes it special how he single hand will bring this topic to a bigger audience, not as a documentary but at least to make others aware this actually happen to a certain extend not too far from now days.
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