A difficult film about realities of murder
Property Of The State (16) Verdict: Harrowing
CAN you still love someone who has done a terrible thing? That’s the question posed by Ann Marie O’Donnell, the sister of triple killer Brendan, in this film that retells the story of one of Ireland’s most notorious cases.
That it tells it from the viewpoint of the killer, rather than the victims, may make it a hard watch for some, especially those who knew Imelda Riney, her four-year-old son Liam, and the local priest, Fr Joe Walsh, who were shot by O’Donnell in Co. Clare in 1994.
What emerges is a frontal attack on the mental health services in this country.
O’Donnell was a troubled child, so much so that he was prescribed Valium at the age of just four. Sexually abused by a priest, and raped in a juvenile detention centre, he became increasingly unstable.
On several occasions, he attempted to take his own life, but he fell through every wide-open crack in the system, and never received the help he needed.
That is not presented as an excuse for his crimes, which thankfully are not explicitly shown here, but more as an explanation for what he became.
He died in as yet unexplained circumstances in the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum in 1997, a year after he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The film is a patchy affair, especially in the acting department. Made in Northern Ireland, many of the actors clearly were recruited locally, so the clash of accents occasionally is jarring for a home audience.
There are three standout performances, though. Aisling Loftus, best known for playing Agnes Towler in TV’s Mr Selfridge, impresses as the older Ann Marie, while Hazel Doupe, playing the character as a teenager, is a young actress to watch — and David Rawle, who played the lead character in Moone Boy, shows great maturity playing the teenage Brendan.
The film is not an easy watch, but it has something to say about our mental health services, a message that very likely still has relevance today.