I can’t think offhand of any Irish-made film that has impressed me as much as An Cailín Ciúin. I had read Claire Keegan’s small jewel of a novel (Foster) on which it was based. Colm Bairead’s restrained and sympathetic direction turns it into a flawless masterpiece in another medium. Not very much seems to happen but every frame is loaded with import as the girl in question blossoms under the loving care of her fostering relations. But all the time we are aware that this is an interlude and she will probably be retuning to her chaotic and dysfunctional home presided over by her brutish father. The acting is flawless – especially the slowly thawing character of her uncle played by Andrew Bennett and the father rendered convincingly by Michael Patric. The most violent scene in the film is the latter’s stubbing out of a cigarette on his dinner plate and yet the whole film thrums with suppressed emotion and latent violence. There are lighter moments too – the interrogation by a local busybody where she is asked does the aunt use butter or margarine in her baking. The naturalism of the setting helps also – the slightly down-at-heel farm set in the lush green countryside. Comparisons with its fellow Oscar nominee Banshees of Inisherin do McDonagh’s ludicrous and overblown melodrama no favours.
