‘The Quiet Girl Review: Irish Oscar Submission Is An Affecting ComingofAge Drama About The Nourishment Of Kindness
Few films explore both the protection and solitude of silence with the eloquence of Colm Bayread's tender Irish-language drama The Quiet Girl ( An Cailín Ciúin ). When the distracted 9-year-old heroine disappears through the cracks of her overcrowded family home and is kicked out of school for not learning enough, her quick wit thrives during a hot summer under the tutelage of distant relatives. While the almost as taciturn man has become an indispensable father figure, he remarks in defense of the introverted girl: "He says everything he has to say."
That comment, combined with a mostly unspoken kindness, lends a touching grace and sensitivity to this masterfully crafted film. Adapted from a story by Claire Keegan Foster , Bairéad - documentary and television director - is a work of unshakable restraint, which makes its secret emotional weight even more remarkable.
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The modest production, which won the "Generation" award at the Berlin Young Audiences Film Festival earlier this year, won the Irish Academy of Film and Television (before Belfast ) award and became a successful national surprise. becoming the largest entrance to the Neon shop. The all-time Irish-language film Super recently acquired the rights to North America and will benefit from the film's positioning as Ireland's entry into the international 2023 Oscar category.
From the opening shots, framed by director of photography Kate McCullough in beautifully structured compositions in a pleasing 4.3 aspect ratio, it's clear that slim young Kate (Catherine Clinch) is more at home. When one of her brothers calls her and says her mother is looking for her, Kate hides in the tall grass in her dreaming mind.
Her mother (Kate Nick Chonanai) is an impatient and depressed woman with too many children to care for and another on the way. His father (Michael Patrick) is rude, lazy and unfit for agricultural work, threatening on the fringes of these economic settlement scenes.
Newcomer Byread and the talented Clinch skillfully show how Kate observes this rural world, remaining almost invisible to it, picking up snippets of short conversations from her parents or more rudimentary conversations from her sisters. At school, her high-pitched, almost inaudible voice and painful shyness when reading force the teacher to quickly move on to the next student, while outside the classroom, her classmates ignore her or look at her like a monster.
With the slightest fuss, Kate sets off to spend the summer with her mother's wealthy older cousin, Aiblin (Carrie Crowley) and her husband Sean (Andrew Bennett) in their small dairy. Her father, barely able to behave politely, let alone thank her, is so anxious to get rid of the girl that he leaves with his suitcase. But Aiblin immediately begins to treat Kate with a warm tenderness she's not used to, even though Sean is distant at first.
As the title suggests, this isn't a film about vocal discovery or a grand transformation. But in a nuanced performance that speaks endlessly in two words, Clinch conveys the rich impact of this interlude of acceptance and belonging to Cáit. As Eibhlin takes her well-deserved bath, counting 100 ticks in a reassuring voice as she brushes her hair, you feel the little girl getting used to this strange new idea of what life can and should be. little girl, learning. confidence. She seems discreetly grateful when Aiblin enlists her in housework and cooking.
Eibhlin tells him that his home is a house with no secrets and that secrets mean shame: "We don't want shame here." But sadness is clearly in the air.
Sean's gradual softening of the girl's presence in the house is as much a sign of that pain as is his overreaction, angry and frightened, when she disappears while he briefly remains in her custody cleaning the stables. And Kate can feel some of the couple's sadness as she looks at the train-themed wallpaper in her bedroom or examines the baby clothes she has to wear before, at Sean's insistence, they are taken downtown to buy her new ones. . . .
The cover is not open-hearted, but through a wonderful scene that adds a spark of mischief to the drama. After an elderly neighbor, Eibhlin agrees to let Una (Joan Sheehy), a well-meaning villager, take Kate home and take care of the girl until she and Sean are ready to go. But Una is a nosy slanderer, who asks the girl questions about Aiblin ("Do you use butter or margarine in your cakes?") And the personal tragedy that marked her life without an iota of compassion. He can't wait to get to the front door to get a wake-up snack ("Foolishness Tried") to his bittersweet mother.
Fierce and invigorating, this break in the film's serenity sets the stage for the romance's inevitable end as the school year draws to a close and Kate returns home. It's unclear if her time will change her forever, but it will certainly broaden her understanding of the world and the beauty of kindness. There is no doubt that this will be the time when his thoughts turn to seeking comfort, as will likely be the case with Eibhlin and Sean. Kate's reluctance is likely to remain the same, perhaps reinforced by what Shawn tells her: "Many people have missed the opportunity to say nothing and have lost a lot as a result."
With Clinch as the painfully vulnerable protagonist, the excellent cast does an undeniable job, while respecting the film's enveloping sense of place. The production and understated costume design, by Emma Lowery and Louise Stanton respectively, portray an early 1980s setting that could resemble the 1950s (in a wonderful moment, when Kite first sees Aiblin, seems to contemplate with admiration the miracle to come.)
"Quiet Girl " is a modest, quiet, intimate and dark drama that occasionally borders on sentimentality but invariably recoils before becoming a sugar-coated cliché. This balance is also maintained in Steven Roenick's wonderful melodic soundtrack. It's a well-made debut film whose emotional rewards are inversely proportional to its size.
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