THE QUIET GIRL
****
Director: Colm Bairéad
Screenplay: Colm Bairéad, adapted from the short story Foster by Claire Keegan.
Principal cast:
Catherine Clinch
Carrie Crowley
Andrew Bennett
Michael Patric
Kate Nic Chonaonaigh
Joan Sheehy
Country: Ireland
Classification: M
Runtime: 94 mins.
Australian release date: 8 September 2022.
The Quiet Girl, the debut feature film of director and scriptwriter Colm Bairéad, is an exquisite coming-of-age yarn set in rural Ireland in 1981. It is spoken almost entirely in Irish-language and was, appropriately in this reviewer’s opinion, the recipient of multiple honours at the 2022 Irish Film and Television Awards, including Best Film. It’s the tale of a family in crisis as seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl. Foster, the short story on which it is based, was published in 2010 by Irish author Claire Keegan who, coincidentally, has just been short-listed for the Booker Prize for her novel, Small Things Like These.
Cáit (a mesmerising performance from newcomer Catherine Clinch) lives in her overcrowded family home on a rundown farm with her Mam, Da, two older sisters and baby brother, where she seems not to fit in. Her father (Michael Patric) is a drinker and womaniser who refers to Caít as “the wanderer” because she often takes off and hides in the countryside on her own. You immediately get the impression that she is wishing to escape her rambunctious siblings and indifferent parents. When her mother (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) falls pregnant again, Caít is sent away to live with a distant cousin, Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley), and her husband Séan (Andrew Bennett). They, too, are farmers but they work hard to maintain a decent life, unlike Cáit’s ne’er-do-well Da. Initially, she is embraced more by Eibhlín, who tells the little girl that “There are no secrets in this house;” Séan, like Cáit, is also quiet and withdrawn - he opines that “Many’s the person missed the opportunity to say nothing” - but, as the pair spend time together, he becomes like a surrogate father to her. One night, via the meanness of a two-faced neighbour (Joan Sheehy), Cáit learns that there is, indeed, a secret in the house and it’s a source of terrible pain for its inhabitants. Soon enough, though, the summer draws to a close, Cáit’s Mam gives birth and the time comes for the now changed ‘quiet girl’ to return to her unhappy home.
The Quiet Girl is a remarkable first film; as its title infers, it’s comprised of small moments and gradual awakenings. Although momentous things happen, there are no fireworks on display. Talking of the source material, Bairéad explained that it was “the ‘smallness’ of the story that I believed in. There’s a quote by [filmmaker] Mark Cousins where he says that art shows us again and again that if we look closely and openly at a small thing, we can see a great deal in it. I’m very much drawn to this notion, that something quite expansive and profound can be found in small places, in a kind of narrative humility.” This intimacy is amplified by shooting much of the movie from the child’s point of view so, for example, we don’t even see her father’s face for some time because Cáit’s often looking up at him from the back seat of his car. Other scenes are witnessed by her but not understood so, we too, aren’t privy to the context of the shot. It’s a great device for revealing the mind of a child and how it works.
The performances of the actors are brilliant, particularly young Catherine Clinch and her foster parents, Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennett. They provide achingly real portrayals of these loving, and lovely, despairing people. The characters they play have been deeply hurt by life but have managed to keep faith and hope alive and this inner strength comes through in the actors’ interpretations of them. The Quiet Girl is a profoundly moving film - it’s that rare thing: a movie that manages to impart a great deal of emotion and understanding while not saying very much at all.
Screenplay: Colm Bairéad, adapted from the short story Foster by Claire Keegan.
Principal cast:
Catherine Clinch
Carrie Crowley
Andrew Bennett
Michael Patric
Kate Nic Chonaonaigh
Joan Sheehy
Country: Ireland
Classification: M
Runtime: 94 mins.
Australian release date: 8 September 2022.
The Quiet Girl, the debut feature film of director and scriptwriter Colm Bairéad, is an exquisite coming-of-age yarn set in rural Ireland in 1981. It is spoken almost entirely in Irish-language and was, appropriately in this reviewer’s opinion, the recipient of multiple honours at the 2022 Irish Film and Television Awards, including Best Film. It’s the tale of a family in crisis as seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl. Foster, the short story on which it is based, was published in 2010 by Irish author Claire Keegan who, coincidentally, has just been short-listed for the Booker Prize for her novel, Small Things Like These.
Cáit (a mesmerising performance from newcomer Catherine Clinch) lives in her overcrowded family home on a rundown farm with her Mam, Da, two older sisters and baby brother, where she seems not to fit in. Her father (Michael Patric) is a drinker and womaniser who refers to Caít as “the wanderer” because she often takes off and hides in the countryside on her own. You immediately get the impression that she is wishing to escape her rambunctious siblings and indifferent parents. When her mother (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) falls pregnant again, Caít is sent away to live with a distant cousin, Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley), and her husband Séan (Andrew Bennett). They, too, are farmers but they work hard to maintain a decent life, unlike Cáit’s ne’er-do-well Da. Initially, she is embraced more by Eibhlín, who tells the little girl that “There are no secrets in this house;” Séan, like Cáit, is also quiet and withdrawn - he opines that “Many’s the person missed the opportunity to say nothing” - but, as the pair spend time together, he becomes like a surrogate father to her. One night, via the meanness of a two-faced neighbour (Joan Sheehy), Cáit learns that there is, indeed, a secret in the house and it’s a source of terrible pain for its inhabitants. Soon enough, though, the summer draws to a close, Cáit’s Mam gives birth and the time comes for the now changed ‘quiet girl’ to return to her unhappy home.
The Quiet Girl is a remarkable first film; as its title infers, it’s comprised of small moments and gradual awakenings. Although momentous things happen, there are no fireworks on display. Talking of the source material, Bairéad explained that it was “the ‘smallness’ of the story that I believed in. There’s a quote by [filmmaker] Mark Cousins where he says that art shows us again and again that if we look closely and openly at a small thing, we can see a great deal in it. I’m very much drawn to this notion, that something quite expansive and profound can be found in small places, in a kind of narrative humility.” This intimacy is amplified by shooting much of the movie from the child’s point of view so, for example, we don’t even see her father’s face for some time because Cáit’s often looking up at him from the back seat of his car. Other scenes are witnessed by her but not understood so, we too, aren’t privy to the context of the shot. It’s a great device for revealing the mind of a child and how it works.
The performances of the actors are brilliant, particularly young Catherine Clinch and her foster parents, Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennett. They provide achingly real portrayals of these loving, and lovely, despairing people. The characters they play have been deeply hurt by life but have managed to keep faith and hope alive and this inner strength comes through in the actors’ interpretations of them. The Quiet Girl is a profoundly moving film - it’s that rare thing: a movie that manages to impart a great deal of emotion and understanding while not saying very much at all.