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Wednesday, October 12, 2022

AN CAILÍN CIÚIN / THE QUIET GIRL (2022)

Already a surprise hit in the U.K., this quiet, deliberately paced gem punches far above its weight.   Its idyllic rural Irish setting belied by a desperately unhappy, regressive young girl, a bed-wetting tween unpopular at school and at her home, a failing farm with older sisters who ignore her, an over-burdened pregnant mother without much time or inclination, and an unloving, disreputable father.  But a way out is presented when an older couple, childless cousins of the mother, offer to take the girl for the summer on their well-appointed dairy farm.  The two filling an ache from their own past.  The wife sympathetic from the start, the husband at first wary to the point of indifference.  (Like much that happens here, you’ll guess events & secrets before being told, a kind of gentle suspense built from withholding info till needed.)   Beautifully handled by writer/director Colm Bairéad, trusting the material and his audience, never rushing or pushing, working the intimacy for its own benefit in a thoughtful tone that thrives & concentrates using the old squarish Academy Ratio frame.  Cleverly set in the early ‘80s, this being rural Ireland (Gaelic and all), it might be taking place two or three decades earlier.  It lends a timeless quality and helps the film pack a hushed emotional wallop.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Ken Loach’s debut feature KES/’69 comes to mind.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/08/kes-1969.html

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