The Quiet Girl review: well-meaning film needs to make a little noise
Ireland’s Oscar nominee for Best International Feature follows a young girl escaping her dysfunctional family
Film Reviews Carrie Crowley
The Irish drama The Quiet Girl often seems like an exceptionally well-made Lifetime movie. Its lyrical imagery and overall aloofness warrant a serious look, yet of the five nominees for this year’s Best International Feature Film Oscar it’s clearly the one with the lowest stakes. While there is not much fault to be found, the film is slight even when held up against a donkey’s journey in Poland’s Oscar nominated EO. Writer-director Colm Bairéad faithfully adapts Claire Keegan’s 2010 novella, Foster, but the film needs more of the keen observations by its 9-year-old protagonist that made the source material stand out.
As with the novella, the film’s setting isn’t explicitly announced, though in fact it’s 1980s rural Ireland. In the opening scene, Cáit (Catherine Clinch) hides from her mother, Máire (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh), and her siblings after a bed-wetting incident. She looks as if she’d prefer to vanish from the face of the Earth. As soon as her dad (Michael Patric) arrives, the girls hush up as if he has a hair-trigger temper, though we don’t witness any outbursts firsthand. His worst transgressions appear to be gambling and adultery. At school, Cáit struggles to read and gets called a weirdo, though no overt bullying is shown. She simply likes to keep to herself although she can’t help drawing unwanted attention.
As Máire nears the birth of her sixth child, she and her husband decide to send Cáit away for the summer to live with Máire’s distant relatives, Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley) and Seán (Andrew Bennett), who are virtual strangers. Eibhlín warmly greets Cáit upon her arrival, while her dad is so eager to bolt after dropping Cáit off that he neglects to offload her luggage from his trunk. Eibhlín and Seán’s house is noticeably brighter and cleaner than Cáit’s. Eibhlín washes the youngster up nicely and dotes on her, unfazed even by her incontinence. She just needs some minding, they rightly assume, and soon the nocturnal bedwetting miraculously goes away.
Cáit is thoughtful and eager to learn the various chores to be done. In the film’s most efficient scene, she wanders off while Seán is scrubbing the floor of a milking parlor with a push broom. Seán is understandably upset, but, unbeknown to him, she’s been looking for another push broom so she can pitch in.
Foster benefits from the protagonist’s narration, but writer-director Bairéad foregoes voiceover, preferring to illustrate her descriptions visually. These work best as insert shots of fragmented textual details like wallpaper, leaves, and dust cakes courtesy of cinematographer Kate McCullough. But without Cáit’s introspection and editorializing of details, we can’t make out the significance of these vignettes. It also doesn’t help that Clinch carries a blank expression through the entirety of the film, with the exception of a scene in which Seán encourages Cáit to take up running.
Some of the scenes don’t make much sense. Cáit is obviously the titular quiet girl, but she suddenly becomes an inquisitive chatterbox during her first alone time with Seán. At this point, we’re unsure if he welcomes her presence at all, though later we learn that everyone in the film is repressed to an extent—but we can’t tell whether that’s cultural or if Bairéad is just maladroit at directing actors. In another scene, Seán nudges Eibhlín to take Cáit to town and shop for new dresses. He even offers her some pocket money for an ice cream bar. So why are Eibhlín’s warmth and cheerfulness towards Cáit suddenly nowhere to be found? Sure, we learn later why Eibhlín would act this way, but that doesn’t explain the child’s apathy toward going to town, shopping for new clothes, and having pocket money.
The Quiet Girl has a meaningful message on nurturing. But with so little of consequence going on, it’s crucial to get the emotions precisely right. Without voiceover narration tying everything together, some scenes feel out of place, random, or offer little beyond aesthetics. Being in a highly competitive Oscar category only invites further scrutiny that the film regrettably cannot withstand.
(The Quiet Girl opens in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago on February 24)
13 Comments
As a Yank who lived in Dublin for 7 years in the 90s, and made a weak attempt to learn Gaelic, “bocht” (poor) was the first word I recognized in that trailer.
Sorry you missed all the significance of it. It relates to Ireland but it could relate to any oppressed country or any neglected child or language or culture. The lowest stakes? We are in danger of losing our language and with it, our identity. Those are massively high stakes. Our language contains the wisdom of all the generations that went before us. It is shame that prevents people from speaking it and a sense that is it inferior. The clues are everywhere. The posh voices on the commercials on the radio. The talk of a better ‘class’ of living on the raidio. Blank face? Did you really miss ALL the signs? Ah! You write with certainty. You believe strongly that what you write is true. A lifetime movie? Is this because you are not used to seeing humanity and kindness in movies or you missed why that humanity is necessary as protection from the ever-present threats that are evident at the edges of this film?This movie is based on the best of literature. It is made with the best of skills. Story, Cinematography, Music, Acting, all of these are incredible in An Cailín Ciúin. It is translated from the book through Irish with an added depth of understanding of the weight of centuries of being told that we and our culture and language are backward. I’m sorry you missed the significance. As I write, people in Ukraine are doing all they can to ensure that they and their language and culture survive. Most ‘colonized’ countries understand this pain. Did you not understand that?The lowest stakes?Just because this is shown and not spoken should not mean it’s beyond your understanding. If fact, for most people this shows respect to the viewer. They are allowed to figure it out, to relate to it on a personal level. Do you need narration to tell you what to think?Let me just say this, we can make out the significance of ‘vignettes’ and so can you. Ask yourself why. Why is the mother pregnant all the time? Why doesn’t she get divorced? Why do people need to say nothing to be safe? This is far from a Lifetime movie. When you do figure out the answers, you may understand the weight people carry and the monumental significance of this film.In the meantime, please reflect on your cheap shot at a child who acted far better than you did in writing this. An Cailín Ciúin is the best film of 2022. By far. It’s significance is monumental. It may take some people longer to understand why. There is a massive depth of meaning in it that you have completely missed. I hope you take the time to figure that out. I hope you enjoy that journey. A score of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and a heartfelt testimony from the multitudes means it’s worth a second look with a more open mind. It would also be good to try to figure out why you dismissed it so.
Totally, utterly with you. This film is absolutely wonderful, with one of the most powerful yet understated last lines of any film I’ve seen in recent memory. Anyone who thinks the lead actress’s performance is lacking is just terribly uninformed. Between hers and the lead actress in Aftersun, we were treated to two excellent young performances this year.
Agree with this 100%
Thank you. I couldn’t have said this better.
Absolutely agree with all you say here. And I’m confused at “As with the novella, the film’s setting isn’t explicitly announced, though in fact it’s 1980s rural Ireland.” I guess that they don’t explicitly state where Cáit’s immediate family live, but I could swear that it was stated that Eibhlín & Seán are in Waterford. I mean, didn’t they go shopping in Dungarvan?
Great comment. This review gave the impression the writer was on their phone while they had the movie on in the background.
I was hoping this was a gender-swapped remake of the John Ford classic, just because it would piss off all the MAGA-right John Wayne fetishists.
Soo brave. What a great way for you to go through life.
This review is so wildly and amateurishly off-the-mark, it makes me honestly sad at the sorry state of criticism on this site. You needed voiceover to understand what was going on? For real? “Show don’t tell” is a golden rule of screenwriting for good reason and this film does a beautiful and precise job of it. Is subtlety really so confusing or were you just too busy on your phone to follow along?And don’t get me started on the EO slander!
There is a reason this film was one of the most highly rated of the last year, but it requires the ability to enjoy and understand subtly and beauty rather than noise and flashing lights. Perhaps your time would be better served going to watch yet another CGI fest, because the adults dont want you to contribute astonishingly vapid arguments like a fucking “voice over narration” improving the film, as if Morgan Freeman telling you what to think is going to somehow explain the significance of a moment better than the empty space between your ears can.Jesus Christ what a useless reviewer, and what a pointless website this has become, hiring the utterly out of their depth now they have fired anyone with a modicum of knowledge about film making or story telling. The end cant come too soon.
Yeah, I don’t know the reviewer, but they seem to have watched a different movie than what is there. At the very least, the performances are solid—I’m not sure where ‘blank expression’ is coming from, she looked pretty perplexed and justifiably wary to me—and there’s a lot going on in the story that is not JUST about surface-level “nurturing.”It was not my favorite movie of last year (I saw it in Ireland, which was nice). Nor do I think it was the best. But comparing it to a Lifetime movie? That seems lazy and clickbaity.Anyway, y’all should see it. It won’t change your life, and it can be a little slow, but I’d wager a lot of people will find it moving on some level.
This reviewer is obviously to me someone that hasn’t raise a child or understands what caring for another person means.I have seen every nominated film in this year‘s Oscars season. This was a film that I knew nothing about, but it is easily my favorite film of the year. From a personal level, it is slow, comforting, and one of the most emotional movies I’ve seen in my life. That last line, got me right in the heart. Is this movie for everyone? No. But once you have raised a child, you will understand it so much more.
It also has some great cinematography, editing, and acting that I have seen in recent years
Even my young adult daughter, who is currently in film school agreed that it was one of the best films she’d seen all year. If you love good stories and good film, you should see this film