Small Things Like These

In recent years, the films chosen to open the Berlin International Film Festival tend to be terminally pleasant, nothing that rocks the boat; the sort of thing that could safely be watched on the couch with Gran (or most people’s Grans anyway). Lo and behold, the festival has chosen an opener that actually provokes an emotional response – since director Tim Mielants’ film is something that the words “quietly devastating” could have been coined for.

Bill (Cillian Murphy) is soft-hearted, according to his wife Eileen (Eileen Walsh). With some helpful foreshadowing, she reminds him that to get along in life, certain things must be ignored. She’s not explicitly talking about their small Irish town’s open secret: the local Magdalene asylum, where fallen women (or rather, unwed young women who have fallen pregnant) are forced into menial (slave) labour in the name of God’s love, or atoning for their sins, or whatever the official justification for this systemic sadism was. Bill’s empathy gets the better of him, and he finds it increasingly difficult to ignore the local franchise of these horrors – and the young women affected.

Murphy, enjoying a much-deserved hot streak after Oppenheimer, is an exercise in restraint. His performance could be described as warm minimalism, and since Bill’s dilemma is almost entirely internal, he has to emote while saying very little. He’s helped by Mielants’ preference for extreme closeups, and Murphy aficionados might appreciate the chance to quite literally count the pores on the actor’s nose. As the poisonous Sister Mary, Emily Watson also goes for restraint. She could have easily taken the actorly path of least resistance and created a despicable sadist, but keeps her performance measured, creating an unsettling, sinister character.

Perhaps some moments don’t land with the intended impact, like a lingering view of a single tear sliding down Bill’s cheek, or his wintry wanderings through his small Irish town in the lead-up to Christmas 1985. But the pace never drags, and there’s not an irrelevant moment to be found. The film is a mere 96 minutes, lean and affecting, and there’s no fat that could have been trimmed from the story.

Bill’s decision to take action is inevitable, and since the audience is wholly on his side, it’s extremely satisfying. Extremely satisfying actually summarises the entire feature – which could have been relentlessly depressing but is reinforced with true hopefulness, resulting in an intelligent and compassionate film for grownups.

Oliver Johnston

Small Things Like These does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2024 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival website here.

Watch the a clip from Small Things Like These here: