“The Quiet Girl,” October 19, 2023 (2022), airplane, in Gaelic with subtitles. Watched a second time on November 24, 2023.
I rarely watch films a second time shortly after a first viewing. This one was very much worth it. The emotional development hit home. The slow pacing felt so very right. It’s very beautiful. I found myself even more affected the second time.
I really liked this small and very thoughtful exploration of the power and meaning of love for a child from Colm Bairead. Set in rural Ireland in 1981, it has more of a feel like a somewhat earlier time..
Cait (a marvelous Catherine Clinch) is a very quiet girl. She is malnourished. She struggles to read in school and is teased and bullied for her simple cloths, hides from her very rough siblings, and experiences none of the parental love and care one would hope for. She is untutored despite her educational issues. Her father is both a failed farmer, a drinker, and likes to gamble. Her mother, pregnant again, is both physically and emotionally worn, exhausted and not a little bitter. Their marriage is a dark place. Money is tight and love is even more scarce.
As Cait’s mother’s pregnancy progress, the girl is sent to spend the summer with her mother’s older cousins, Eiblihn (Carrie Crowley) and Sean (Andrew Bennett), a childless couple who work a much more successful farm. Quiet prevails there too, but over time, so does love. And it is transformative.
This is not a film of resolutions or ‘happy endings.’ But it is a film that speaks to the ‘power of love’ and kindness in a human and humane voice. I strongly recommend this film.