THE QUIET GIRL
Cert 12A ★★★★★ In cinemas now
This gorgeously shot, sharply written and wonderfully acted drama comes from a different universe to Michelle Yeoh’s frenetic alternative reality action comedy.
The setting is a farm on the south-east coast of Ireland in the 1980s, where Gaelic is the first language (English subtitles are provided), and where a withdrawn little girl is spending the summer holidays with two relatives she had never met.
Cáit’s reluctance to talk could be connected to her humiliating habit of wetting the bed.
The watchful girl (played by 12-year-old Catherine Clinch) has been raised alongside four raucous sisters. Her thuggish dad (Michael Patric) and heavily pregnant mum (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) aren’t abusive but the sensitive child is clearly starved of love and attention.
Tired of washing her bedding, her mum packs her off to rural Waterford to stay with her cousin Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley) and her husband Seán (Andrew Bennett), a gruff dairy farmer who is even less chatty than Cáit.
Over the long summer holiday, the girl develops a bond with the kindly couple as she learns how to feed calves and fetch water from a well.
Writer-director Colm Bairéad stirs in some dark comedy as Cáit encounters village gossip Úna (Joan Sheehy) who quizzes the girl about Eibhlín’s home life (“Does she use butter or margarine?”) and reveals important details about her past.
But so little happens, you may wonder why you’re finding this slight film so compelling.
“Many’s the person who’s missed the opportunity to say nothing,” says wise Sean as he shields the girl from the gossip’s tongue. Here, it’s the small, silent moments that pack the biggest punch.