If a more powerful, thought-provoking film has been released this year, I’ve yet to see it.
But be forewarned, “The Magdalene Sisters,” which is based on actual events, is difficult to watch (especially for staunch supporters of the Catholic Church), and designed to leave audiences feeling emotionally devastated and angry.
Still, I couldn’t recommend another film more highly.
“The Magdalene Sisters” is set in sexually-repressed Ireland in 1964. At the outset, we’re introduced to three young women who are about to fall from their rigid, male-dominated society’s graces: Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) is raped by her cousin at a wedding; Rose (Dorothy Duffy) gives birth to a child out of wedlock; and Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) is deemed too popular with the boys who cling to the fence outside her orphanage.
With these offenses on their records, the inadvertent “mortal sinners” are imprisoned indefinitely inside the forbidding walls of a Magdalene asylum. There they are subjected to intolerable cruelty by the Sisters of Mercy, who force their charges to act as a free labor force for a lucrative full-service laundry business. Recall every prison movie convention you’ve seen and know that you’ll get that and more here.
The performances are nothing short of remarkable, especially those by Noone (making her film debut as the headstrong survivor Bernadette) and Geraldine McEwan in a wicked turn as the sadistic overseer, Sister Bridget.
Director Peter Mullan makes no attempt to conceal his outrage and disgust at what transpired for over 100 years in these Magdalene asylums, the last of which was closed only eight years ago. And justifiably so.
But because his message is driven home with all the subtlety of a thunderous blow to the head, the movie begs for a counter-punch we’re incapable of delivering. So we’re left feeling beaten and frustrated like the victims of the asylums … and maybe that’s exactly as it should be. (Rated R for violence/cruelty, nudity, sexual content and language. Running time: 119 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 15, 2003. Read the original PDF.