By Johnny Murray

Seven months on from his first Oscar win for his lead role in history piece blockbuster “Oppenheimer”, Cillian Murphy has returned to the screen, starring as the quiet and disturbed protagonist of “Small Things Like These”.

Directed by Tim Mielants, the film centres around Bill Furlong, a coal merchant in southern Irish town, New Ross. Bill lives a mundane life as he works tirelessly to support his wife and five daughters, until past traumas resurface along with stumbling upon suspicions that a local convent is in fact, a Magdalene Laundry.

When dropping off a delivery, Bill walks into a room of deprived looking girls who are scrubbing the floors, one approaches him pleading for his help to save her. Later in the film, he finds a young pregnant girl locked in a shed overnight in the freezing cold. This prompts him to take action.

The film, clocking in at just under 100 minutes, is a real slow burner. However, the dark and dingy scenery and short, tight dialogue helped to build an eerie and disturbing atmosphere that has you gripped throughout. The film is also massively helped by the masterful performance of Cillian Murphy, who portrays the role of the troubled and anxious Bill to perfection. It could be his best performance to date as he continues to show why he is one of the best actors of his generation.

The cinematography is also stunning. The feel of an authentic Irish town of that time is captured down to a T. Some of the shots also help capture what the characters are feeling without any dialogue required.

Eileen Walsh and Emily Watson also drop fantastic performances. As the former portraying the wife of Bill, who believes he should mind his own business and that these wrongs aren’t his to right. The latter is the menacing Mother Superior of the convent, who attempts to bribe and silence Bill about his findings.

The issues the film (which was adapted from the novel by Claire Keegan) tackles are the power the Catholic Church had over communities in Ireland and the blind eye that many turned to the on-goings. It’s a sensitive subject but a fitting job is done of telling the story, with the end product being a moving and eye-opening masterclass.

This also marks the first film under Murphy’s new production company “Big Things Films” and is another great production to come out of Ireland, a nation that can’t help but make great films of late.

The film has been running at the Glasgow Film Theatre and is on until the end of November.

City Live gives this film four stars out of five.

"Small Thing Like These" Film Review