Irish tale a triumph of quiet beauty
Young star gives a superb portrayal with few words
The Quiet Girl (124 mins), screening in cinemas now Directed by Colm Bairead Reviewed by Jen Shieff
Beautifully filmed in rural Ireland, set in the early 1980s, in Irish (Gaelic) with subtitles, with an Irish director (Colm Bairead), it comes as no surprise that The Quiet Girl, known in Ireland as An Caiiin Ciuin, was judged best Irish film by the Dublin Film Critics’ Circle this year and left Belfast (2021) in the dust to take seven Irish Film and Television Academy awards.
One of those awards went to Catherine Clinch, 12, for her brilliant portrayal of Cait, the quiet girl of the title. Did Anna Paquin feel she was destined for Hollywood, aged 11, when she won her Oscar for her role in The Piano (1993)? Catherine Clinch will surely have an acting career ahead of her, should she want it. Hers is an outstanding performance.
Based on Claire Keegan’s short story Foster published in The New Yorker in 2010, the film follows Cait as she is sent from her overcrowded, impoverished farm cottage to stay for the summer with her mother’s cousin and her husband, Sean and Eibhlin (Andrew Bennett and Carrie Crowley), while her mother prepares for yet another baby and Cait’s boorish father pursues his own interests.
One of Clinch’s many achievements is the way in which she wordlessly communicates Cait’s miserable feelings about being an outsider, an observer, and then her delight in discovering how well she fits in at her new home.
Sean and Eibhlin live on a productive dairy farm, in a much bigger house than Cait’s, with plentiful food. They’re warm and caring, but there’s something odd bubbling below the surface. Sean, usually a calm, favourite-uncle sort of person, loses his temper completely when Caitt briefly goes missing from the cowshed. Something is clearly wrong. Has Eibhlin told the truth when she tells Cait there are no secrets in their home?
Colm Bairead’s two previous films were documentaries about Ireland. The Quiet Girl is his first feature film, with no sign of the directorial hand of a documentary maker. No facts here, no politics, just fiction that speaks the truth. It’s a work of art, with wonderful cinematography by Kate
McCullough (Normal People, 2020) and a suitably haunting soundtrack by Stephen Rennicks (Room, 2015).
There’s a lot that’s relevant to all of us in the insights The Quiet Girl gives into parenting, social status, attitudes to work, and above all, love and understanding. Small things illustrate universality. Basics of domestic life, such as clothes and wallpaper, contain layers of meaning.
Seaa´ n and Eibhlin are the epitome of kind foster parents, welcoming Cait selflessly despite their own hidden, sad burden, which could have turned them into embittered, lonely people. The gentle unfolding of the relationship between Cait and Sean is a standout in this exquisite slice of life.
Must see
* Movies are rated: Avoid, Recommended, Highly recommended and Must see.