A TERRIBLE BEAUTY
God's Creatures is an exquisite and disturbing emotional ride
“A mother knows.” It's an ancient expression with a lot of meanings. A mother knows her child. A mother knows when something's wrong. A mother knows what's best. That's a lot of responsibility to place on a mom, as we see play out in God's Creatures, a beautiful and disturbing feature (yes, it can be both!) from co-directors Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer.
The setting is a remote Irish village, and its lifeblood ebbs and flows on the fortunes of its oyster fishery. That's where Aileen O'hara (Emily Watson)
works, along with at least half the local population it seems. The story starts with the return of Aileen's son, Brian (Paul Mescal), from Australia, where he's been for several years. No one really expected him to come back, yet here he is, easily sliding back into local work and the rhythms of the town.
Then something happens. It's not a blink-and-miss-it moment. We actually don't see it at all. Sarah Murphy (Aisling Franciosi) reports that she was assaulted one night after leaving the pub. She names Brian as the perpetrator.
Aileen, seemingly without thinking, provides an alibi for her son, even though she knows he was there.
From there, the story unravels, as do relationships. Brian's drinking buddies at the pub close ranks and tell Sarah she's not welcome there any more. Traumatized and ignored, she starts missing work. Brian acts like nothing has happened.
And Aileen silently tries to cope with what she's done.
We've seen her maternal instincts on display at the fishery, where she tries to mediate in arguments and disagreements. But in this case she's clearly chosen a side — the same side just about everyone else in the village has chosen, though for different reasons. And it's eating her up inside.
The three leads all do excellent work, but I was struck by Mescal as Brian, having seen him at the Toronto International Film Festival playing a very different character in the incredible family drama Aftersun, which opens in Canada on Oct. 28. Mescal also received praise for his role in the BBC miniseries Normal People.
God's Creatures is the chance for filmgoers to see him in the early days of what will likely be a long and fruitful career. And the film itself is a revelation, a conversation-starter and a delicate, nuanced portrait of trauma and grief. You don't have to be a mother to know it's worth watching.