Heartland International Film Festival Review: ‘Small Things Like These’

by | Oct 24, 2024 | Featured Post, Movie Reviews, Movies | 0 comments


Review by James Lindorf

For the second year in a row, MovieMaker Magazine has named the Heartland International Film Festival one of “The 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” and one of “50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.” The festival may be over, but you can see what made the event so cool by searching for #HIFF33 on social media. Over 11 days, organizers hosted 200 filmmakers, 298 screenings, 27 U.S. & World Premieres, 15 special events, and 7500+ virtual streams. Its award winners walked away with a combined $60,000 in cash and prizes and coveted Oscar qualifications for winning Documentary Features.

HIFF commonly uses its opening, centerpiece, and closing nights to highlight films with attention-grabbing names, and this year was no different. The 33rd centerpiece film came from Lionsgate in the form of Tim Mielants’ emotional drama “Small Things Like These.” During 1985’s Christmas season, devoted father and coal merchant Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) discovers startling secrets of his town’s local town. The movie, adapted from Claire Keegan’s novel, reveals truths about Ireland’s Magdalene laundries. These were Roman Catholic institutions that operated from the 1820s until 1996, where young women who they considered to have strayed from the path of virtue were sent to work under harsh conditions, often facing abuse and exploitation.

“Small Things Like These” is a wonderfully filmed and beautifully acted somber exploration of trauma. The film’s cinematography, with its use of muted colors and stark lighting, effectively conveys the bleakness of Bill’s situation. It doesn’t matter if it was innocently delivered to a young boy or purposefully inflicted on others because the nuns believe that their religion tells them to do so, it can have a lasting impact. It has only been seven months since Cillian Murphy took home the Oscar for Best Actor award after his performance in “Oppenheimer” and we may be five months away from him winning the award again. Murphy entirely disappears into his performance as the struggling coal merchant. While he may not have much in the way of striking dialogue, the strength of his performance is in his physicality. Bill has an intense after-work hand washing routine that becomes more aggressive as the film continues, and his stress levels go up. Another side effect of the stress is that Bill has trouble sleeping. Frequently getting up in the middle of the night to sit in the dark, staring out the window, lost in his pain and hoping the world will show him a way to break the cycle. The world gives him that chance when an open door at the convent introduces him to a brokenhearted Sarah (Zara Devlin) and earns him the scorn of Sister Mary (Emily Watson.)

As robust as the strengths of “Small Things like These” are, many viewers will find it laborious. Nothing comes easily to Bill or Sarah, and that feeling is extended to the audience. What happened to Bill in the past is slowly revealed. Even then, not all the dots are connected, leaving plenty open to interpretation. What is happening at the convent is shown at a similar pace and level of completion. Bill doesn’t fully understand what is going on at the convent. Still, he can tell that something is wrong and feels urged to intervene while the rest of the community chooses to look the other way. The methodical pace makes the official 97-minute run time feel markedly longer and will cause some viewers to reach for their phones during prolonged scenes.

A slight extension of that run time could have helped the film’s overall feel and balance. Bill’s wife, Eileen (Eileen Walsh), repeatedly comments that he is not acting like himself, and I long to see a happy, boisterous father of five girls enjoying his family or even a pint at a pub with a friend or three. Instead, we open amid the holiday season, and it feels like nothing but doom, gloom, and seasonal depression. Bill’s mental anguish ramps up after meeting Sarah, but it is clear that this is a part of him, and the fact that his partner of at least 15 years can’t recognize that feels like a letdown in their relationship and the storytelling because Bill has never had an outlet for his pain. “Small Things Like These” is a craftsman’s dream, with Mielants making the best of Edna Walsh’s adaptation that lacks the flair or charm that makes a film beloved, earning it a final score of 4 out of 5.

Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Rating: PG-13 (Thematic Material)
Director: Tim Mielants
Producer: Alan Moloney, Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Drew Vinton, Catherine Magee, Jeff Robinov
Screenwriter: Enda Walsh
Distributor: Lionsgate
Production Co: Artists Equity, Screen Ireland
Release Date (Limited Theatrical): November 8th, 2024
Runtime: 1h 37m