22/12
Cillian Murphy is a fan of the film’s original novel writer, Claire Keegan
Synopsis
In 1985, devout Father Bill Furlong uncovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent and discovers shocking truths of his own. He remembers reading her novel “Foster” on a train and having to cover his face with his hoodie because he was crying. He appears in 60 Minutes: Crisis in the Red Sea/Fake Electors/Finding Cillian Murphy (2024). A friend of mine used to own a great gay bar in Dublin, and I remember being there the day marriage was legalized in Ireland.
One of the women celebrating was telling us about her childhood at the hands of nuns in the 1970s
It’s a horrific story about women who had not an ounce of compassion for each other, and this film takes that cudgel and throws it straight at what is little more than a religious equivalent of a Dickensian asylum. The story is told from the perspective of local coal merchant “Bill” (Cillian Murphy), who lives with his wife and five daughters in a small village in County Wexford. No one has much money, and some are forced to collect firewood from the forest floor to heat their homes. His family is fairly well off by comparison, and with Christmas coming, everyone looks forward to some quality family time.
Can he, though?
He supplies the local convent-orphanage where unmarried girls from the community are deposited when they get in the way of the family, and it is there that he comes across a young girl locked in the coal shed. Frozen and terrified, he wonders how she got trapped there, and that is where the story begins to focus not only on the inhumanity that was prevalent, but on the inner workings of a church that tolerated no resistance or interference. If you want a “peaceful life,” then you might as well leave things as they are. He frequently flashes back to his own childhood.
One of tragedy, kindness, a hot water bottle and a puzzle
“Bill” is a troubled man who has a lot to think about as his conscience refuses to accept the social compromises that even his wife (Eileen Walsh) would prefer he adopt in the face of what she has now witnessed. This is definitely a less-is-more film, with an effective sparseness of dialogue and a sense of oppression that frequently overwhelms with its simplicity. The setting demonstrates a degree of menace far more poignant than any horror film, but this is horror, and an illustration of cruelty at its most devastating and subtle. Murphy shines here, his performance allowing his character to carry us with him as we all watch a situation unfold that might not have been out of place in 1885, but in 1985?
It’s not an easy film to watch, but it’s well worth devoting ninety minutes to it
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