SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Michelle Fairley, Emily Watson

Director: Tim Mielants

99 mins

Cillian Murphy’s performance here shows the accumulation of the actor’s creative reach. Based on the 2021 novel of the same name by Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These brings Murphy together again with director Tim Mielants and screenwriter/Irish playwright Enda Walsh. Mielants previously directed episodes of Peaky Blinders while Walsh has a long history with Murphy both on stage and on screen. Furthermore, Small Things Like These is co-produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Artists Equity production company, which first got involved after Murphy expressed interest in adapting Keegan’s novel to Damon on the set of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Fast forward to 2024 and audiences are now left with an emotional powerhouse of a film. Small Things Like These takes place in 1985 Ireland, specifically in the build-up towards Christmas. Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy), a coal merchant with a working-class family, enters the busiest season of the year as he’s tasked with delivering endless amounts of coal to fuel the Irish town of New Ross during the winter. One chilly morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill is standing at a coal shed door and witnesses a young woman being physically forced into the religious institution. After being quietly threatened by Sister Mary (Emily Watson), the corrupt and vile Mother Superior of the convent, Bill faces an internal crisis. He must choose to either confront or ignore the unnerving secrets that hide within the convent walls every time he makes a delivery, leading him to unlock memories of his own traumatic childhood in the process. The story explores the centuries-long trauma caused by the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, also known as The Magdalene Asylums. Under Roman Catholic orders, these convents took in so-called “fallen women” or unwed mothers who were deemed to be societal failures as a form of rehabilitation. However, thousands of women from the 18th to late 20th centuries were instead forced into strenuous manual labour and other forms of cruel abuse. Claire Keegan’s novel and this film adaptation highlight the complicit silence and shame of one Irish town controlled by the Catholic church. Cillian Murphy puts in a sublime, yet reserved performance as Bill Furlong. His eyes are filled with extreme guilt, anguish, and confusion as his conscience wrestles with his community’s ignorance towards the local “fallen women” and their suffering. 

The overarching dilemma that torments Murphy’s protagonist stems from his early years —everything is internalised but director Tim Mielants excellently visualises Bill’s underlying struggle for the audience. The dual past and present narratives are intrinsically linked, though Enda Walsh’s script never explicitly spells out their connection. The viewer begins to slowly grasp the importance of the secondary narrative from Bill’s childhood as the plot progresses. This creates a viewing experience that is just as gripping as it is infuriating. Small Things Like These forces spectators to witness the troubles that the local women face while also coming to empathise with Bill as he’s the only one from the town pressured to accept the gross injustices right in front of his eyes. Dutch cinematographer Frank van den Eeden captures images in a beautifully cinematic manner that emphasises both Bill’s grim life working with coal and the dark truths of New Ross, Ireland. Grungy lensing and lighting help sell the unfathomable realities of the story at hand. The colours on screen showcase a distinctive mix of blues with strong bursts of tungsten oranges that line the film’s many street shots as Bill walks around town. The lensing of scenes from the past is quite idyllic and different, yet the harshness of the present day rings through despite the tone of the more vibrant images. Considering the subject matter, this is as honest as a film adaptation can get with it never going overboard in dramatising these real-life tragic events.

Cillian Murphy is backed by a small ensemble of great actors who help round out Small Things Like These. But it’s Eileen Walsh who is the main standout as Bill’s wife and mother of their five children, Eileen Furlong. She is a constant presence that challenges the views and actions of Murphy’s character. Eileen represents the wider views of the townsfolk, who widely repress their desire to help the young women taken in by the Laundries. She’s more sceptical and worries about their public perception, whereas Murphy’s Bill finds himself more taken aback at the sight of the convent’s harrowing crimes. Walsh’s performance is subtle and painfully believeable above all else, pairing well with Murphy’s equally internalised interpretation of Bill. Having previously worked together on stage, Walsh and Murphy’s chemistry and trust in one another is undeniable. Another fascinating aspect at play is the fact that Small Things Like These is shot exactly where the story is set in New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland. The film-makers used the town’s actual convent as a set and shot in a real local house as the Furlong family home as well. In this way, the authenticity of Tim Mielants’ adaptation quietly bursts through the screen from all perspectives. Even though relatively slow in its pacing, Small Things Like These churns along at an efficient speed with a running time of just over 90 minutes. It gives us just enough time to grasp how traumatic and troubling the experiences of the women who were subjugated to the Magdalene Laundries were, using Murphy’s Bill Furlong as a device to highlight the inter-generational struggles of those forced into manual labour at the hands of the church.