Heartland: Small Things Like These

Spare Irish drama sports subtly winning Cillian Murphy performance.

For Heartland Film Festival schedule and tickets, please click here.

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“Small Things Like These,” which screens at 6:30 this evening at The Tobias Theater at Newfields as part of the Heartland International Film Festival, is a spare and stark drama that serves as a stirring reminder that women should have autonomy over their lives and bodies and it’s always best to do the right thing especially when it’s hard to do so.

Cillian Murphy – conveying worlds with his eyes and body language – stars as Bill Furlong, a coal merchant residing in New Ross, Ireland with his family in the mid-1980s. He’s a loving husband to Eileen (Eileen Walsh) and a doting father to their five daughters. He’s a kindly man who’s generous to his employees and charitable to his children’s classmates in need.

We flashback to Bill’s childhood (where he’s played by Louis Kirwan) and gain insight into the events that make him the man he’ll ultimately become. We meet Bill’s youthful mother (Agnes O’Casey), her employer Mrs. Wilson (Michelle Fairley, she was Catelyn Stark on “Game of Thrones”) and Bill’s kindly teenage friend Ned (Mark McKenna).

When we return to Christmastime 1985, Bill’s struggling with a case of conscience. He sees a young woman named Sarah Redmond (Zara Devlin) being forced into a convent against her will by her mother and the nun Sr. Mary (Emily Watson). When later delivering coal to the convent he discovers Sarah locked in an outbuilding, shivering in the cold of night. Bill knows something’s amiss and wants to help the young woman. He’s discouraged from doing so by Mary who offers him a sizable Christmas tip. Eileen and local barkeep Norma Sinnott (Joanne Crawford) encourage Bill to go along to get along lest he upset the church and adversely affect his daughters’ education.

“Small Things Like These” is directed by Murphy’s frequent “Peaky Blinders” collaborator Tim Mielants and scripted by “Disco Pigs” playwright Enda Walsh (this production is where Murphy and Walsh both made their bones). It’s based Claire Keegan’s Orwell Prize-winning and Booker Prize-shortlisted novel of the same name.

The film isn’t flashy, but it’s moving and sports one helluva performance from Murphy, who does so much by doing so very little. It’s a bah humbug of a Christmas carol that’s looking to air out Ireland’s dirty (Magdalene) laundry. Sadly, similar issues are all too pertinent stateside today despite the laundries being shuttered back in 1996. “Small Things” seems to be saying it’s no small thing to do the right thing and is nudging us all to do so.