"The Quiet Girl" -- Movie Review

 

This week at Film At Lincoln Center, I attended a screening of the Irish drama, “The Quiet Girl”, which is nominated for an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film 2023. 

Synopsis

When a neglected girl spends the summer with a foster family, will she return to her parents despite the fact that she starts to flourish under their care?

Story

In 1981 rural Ireland, Cáit (Catherine Clinch) is one of many children raised by her parents in a ramshackle house.  With her mother pregnant and school out for the summer, Cáit is sent to live with foster parents for the next couple of months.  Although Cáit doesn’t know them, they are actually related -- Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley) is her mother’s cousin and her husband Seán (Andrew Bennett) will care for the girl until the baby is born.  While Cáit may be relieved to put some distance between herself and her highly dysfunctional family, she nevertheless remains considerably apprehensive – will she be jumping from the frying pan into the fire?

Upon arrival at Eibhlín and Seán’s home, it’s immediately apparent that Cáit has entered a completely different world.  Although the couple are farmers like her own parents, they have a lovely, clean house and the girl is warmly welcomed – not seen as a burden, as her parents do.  Cáit’s father drops her off, warning the couple that they are in for a great deal of misery when taking in Cáit – and when he quickly leaves, he forgets to give them his daughter’s suitcase, so the only clothes she has are what she’s wearing.  Eibhlín fixes this by having the girl wear some boy’s clothes until they can go shopping with Cáit for something more appropriate. 

When one of Eibhlín and Seán’s neighbors offers to have Cáit over to meet her own children so she’ll have some friends, the couple agree – but after this woman mercilessly interrogates the girl, Cáit learns of a secret about the two that significantly changes their relationship.  Once Cáit returns to Eibhlín and Seán, she confronts them about what she’s discovered; Eibhlín is quite upset but Seán uses this opportunity to bond with Cáit.  Eventually, a letter arrives – Cáit’s mother has given birth and with the start of the new school term imminent, suggests now would be a good time to send Cáit home.  But with neither Cáit nor the couple anxious to return the girl to her parents, how will this get resolved between the two families? 

Review

“The Quiet Girl” is an equally quiet film and is about as close to perfect as you can get; it deserves to win the Academy Award for which it’s nominated, but considering the other nominees, it’s probably a longshot – and that’s too damned bad.  It has an absolutely heartbreaking ending that will move you to tears in perhaps the best way possible.  At its heart, the story is really about the healing power of love and especially the impact it has on a child who has been missing it for most of her upbringing.  Regardless of whether or not this wins the award, “The Quiet Girl” is definitely a must-see for all cineastes out there.    

There is a gentleness and tenderness throughout “The Quiet Girl” which, while suiting, can sometimes make the film feel a bit slowly paced; whether this makes you fall out of the story or stick with it will definitely depend on if you are emotionally invested in the movie up to that point.  One thing that should be noted about the movie if you are considering viewing:  it has subtitles.  The reason for this is because the characters frequently alternate between Gaelic and English; while English-only audiences will need the subtitles to translate the Gaelic, the parts that are in English may also benefit from the subtitles due to the heavy Irish accent used by the characters.

There was an interview with the filmmakers following the screening; this included writer/director Colm Bairéad, producer Cleona Ní Chrualaoí and cast members Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett and Catherine Clinch.  Bairéad said that the idea for his first feature film came from reading the short story on which it is based (“Foster” by Claire Keegan); he was deeply affected by it and wanted to tell a story with a first person narrative without relying on voice over narration throughout the entire film.  Accidentally, Covid became influential in the making of this movie; originally supposed to be shot in 2020, it was delayed until the following year.  Covid became an ally in telling the story because the physical distance required by the pandemic played well with the absence of physical affection between the characters.