Starring: Clare Dunne, Harriet Walter, Molly McCann, Ruby Rose O’Hara, Ian-Lloyd Anderson, Conleth Hill
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Runtime: 97 mins. Reviewed in Jul 2021
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This Irish-British film is based on a screenplay written by Malcolm Campbell and Clare Dunne, who takes the lead in the movie. It tells the story of an Irish wife and mother, who escapes from an abusive husband to rebuild a life for herself and her two daughters in Dublin, Ireland. Director, Phyllida Lloyd, brought to the screen the much-awarded, The Iron Lady, in 2011.
After a violent attack by her husband, Gary (Ian-Lloyd Anderson) – which opens the film – Sandra (Dunne), takes her two daughters, Molly (McCann) and Emma (O’Hara), to a cramped room in an Irish Hotel, seeking refuge. Desperate to get away from her manipulative and abusive husband, Sandra attempts to restore her life by building a safe house for herself and her daughters. The only way Sandra believes she can provide a happy home for her family is to build the house herself. She is motivated to build it by an incident in the life of one of Ireland’s patron Saints, St Brigid, told to her by her daughter, Emma, and a video she sees on the internet. The impact of the terrible things that have happened to Sandra and her children is heightened by Gary informing Sandra he wants to sue for legal custody of Molly and Emma.
Sandra has a part-time job, and the doctor-friend she works for, Peggy (Walter), does not understand why she has stayed with a violent husband. With Peggy’s support, Sandra builds up a diverse circle of understanding friends in her community, who offer her kindness, and with their support, she begins to recover her sense of self-worth. Wanting to reach out to her especially, Peggy gives Sandra part of a land property she owns to get her started, and with that, Sandra uses the help of her community, which sustains her in its collective spirit.
This is an inspiring movie about caring and hope. The love and concern of a mother for her children are captured in an outstanding performance by Dunne, who powerfully takes the film’s key role. The movie is suitable mainly for adult viewing, because of the graphic display of physical abuse that it shows. Scenes of Gary’s violence poignantly illustrate Sandra’s hurt, fear and shame, and the film’s depiction of his abuse (which the children see) is further revealed in flashbacks. Abuse scenes merit the film’s restricted rating, but despite its realism, the movie projects warmth, empathy, and a positive sense of humanity that firmly identifies viewers with Sandra’s personal struggle against trauma and adversity. Sandra’s feelings of shame and fear are absorbed by the community’s support, that helps her persevere. The stifling welfare bureaucracy she experiences indicates the difficulty of looking for formal assistance in crisis times; the film strongly indicates the obstacles a woman in her situation is expected to overcome.
What this emotionally authentic movie doesn’t explain, and few can, is why someone trapped in an abusive, assaultive relationship as Sandra’s, doesn’t exit from such a relationship sooner. This is a major issue, to which the movie provides no ready answer. When Sandra was asked, “why didn’t you leave him?”, she plausibly comments to the judge in court, “why didn’t he stop?”. In its gritty realism, the film establishes the urgency of needing to respond speedily and with empathy to “what to do now?”, and “how best to help?”
This film projects the terror of abuse, and the positive worth of maternal love and self-determination. It is an enormously convincing film, that powerfully delivers its core messages.
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