Small Things Like These

(2024, Tim Mielants)

With a Belgian director and a Dutch cinematographer filming the cold and drizzly outskirts of New Ross, in County Wexford, this film’s palette is subdued, the framing is painterly, like a Vermeer. The subject is serious and the mood is somber, but there is much to relish here. The portrait of a tight-knit community which conceals a dreadful truth is penetrating but also subtle. Small details, carefully observed but cleverly disclosed, hint at a town with more than one dirty secret. But in the end the film belongs to Cillian Murphy, whose understated performance as Bill Furlong, anchors this downbeat and sobering film.

I’d like to read the book on which the film is based. Claire Keegan’s novella from 2021 was nominated for the Booker Prize, and the film of another of her books, The Quiet Girl (2022, Colm Bairéad) was a film I absolutely loved. My review can be found in another part of this website with my reviews of the 2022 Sydney Film Festival. Click here. I’d like to know how the interior sections of the story are handled in the book, especially Bill Furlong’s memories. Because this film portrays all the memories and private thoughts very well indeed. Of course, having Cillian Murphy at your disposal is a great advantage, but Tim Mielants’ direction conveys these private matters with understatement and subtlety.

Apart from Murphy, we also have Emily Mortimer, whose performance as the Mother Superior is perfectly judged. Her seemingly-cherubic face also contains cruel and vindictive depths. Those of us schooled by nuns may have a few flashbacks, such is the authenticity of her portrayal.