16/42
Damon liked the story, and the two set up to make the movie
In 1985 devoted father Bill Furlong discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent and uncovers shocking truths of his own.. While Cillian Murphy was discussing working with Tim Mielants again, Murphy's wife suggested that the novel "Small Things Like These" be made into a film. He didn't expect it the rights to be available, but he called Claire Keegan's agent, who told him it was. After acquiring the rights with producing partner Alan Moloney, Murphy pitched the idea to Matt Damon, who has set up a studio with Ben Affleck, on that film's set.
It took me a couple of days to process this movie
Eileen Furlong: If you want to get on in this life, there are things you have to ignore.. Dedicated to the more than 56,000 young women who were sent to Magdalene institutions for "penance and rehabilitation" between the years 1922 and 1998.And the children who were taken from them.. Featured in 60 Minutes: Crisis in the Red Sea/Fake Electors/Finding Cillian Murphy (2024). To all who asked me "did you like it?" I could not give an answer.
So we have this story, which unfortunately is a real one, that takes place in New Ross, Ireland
I didn't like it and I didn't not like it for a simple reason, it's so absorbing, such a meditative experience that I just internalised it. There were times I realised I did not breath for a few seconds during scenes, other moments were I found myself smiling, some moments when I could feel the heaviness on my chest. It's the Ireland of the dark ages, when you start watching this movie you might feel you are in the 50s but really you are in the mid 80s, people were lucky if they had a job and warm place to sleep in, the Catholic Church ran the show and was so infiltrated in the institutions that they controlled education and therefore shaped the culture of the time. It's a small village, the movie makes a fantastic job in getting you into the oppressive atmosphere, even by showing the main character Bill Furlong doing very repetitive working tasks at the beginning, it's all part of getting you into the mood.
Small village, close minded, everyone knows everything and anyone
Perception is crucial, show your best side, keep the bad hidden, omologate, don't think out of the box. And repeat. We meet Bill Furlong in the middle of a nervous breakdown, he was the fatherless child of a young mother, who was lucky enough to be raised by the woman his mother worked for. He has a hard childhood because despite being raised by a woman of money he does not belong to that world and the times are not kind to a fatherless child.
Scene with Eileen in the living room is such an incredible example: she is listening but ignoring, really she doesn't want to know
He is trying to reckon with his past when one day delivering coal at the convent of the village he find a girl in the cold shed left there overnight. His struggle between personal interests and doing the right thing is powerful, he has 5 girls and the nuns control education and therefore the future prospects of his talented girls that he loves and worked his whole life to provide for, and doing the right thing, moral and ethic also putting on top of that that his mother could have been one of those girls if she wasn't as lucky to be taken in by a kind person. He is forced to look the other way, ignore other people suffering for the good of his own family, but when looking the other way is someone that understands pain, someone that has been there and knows what it means, looking the other way becomes so much harder. It's beautifully shot to highlight dark and gloomy to match the heavy tone of the story, I found the use of the blurring lenses incredible and key to the storyline, when you see something you do not want to see, that you want to block out.