THE MAGDALENE SISTERS Rating: (out of 5 stars) Director: Peter Mullan Producer: Frances Higson Writer: Peter Mullan Director of Photography: Nigel Willoughby Cast: Anne-Marie Duff, Nora-Jane Noone, Dorothy Duff, Eileen Walsh Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew

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(Read the interview with writer/director Peter Mullan)

Review by: Warren Curry
7/28/03

The Catholic Church is a sitting duck these days. As further information is disclosed regarding rampant sexual abuse that has gone virtually unchecked within the organization for a shockingly long period of time, it seems almost too easy these days to make a film that casts a decidedly critical view of the institution. After all, how many lowbrow television movies are bound to exploit this lurid material in the near future? This may make for tough box office sledding (though the lack of a name cast is a bigger obstacle) for Peter Mullan's The Magdalene Sisters, a tough, button-pushing film, based on real-life characters who were subjected to confinement in the hellish conditions of Ireland's Catholic Church-run Magdalene Laundries in the mid-1960s.

Much like Philip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence exposed a supposedly civilized 20th century Australia that was disturbingly primitive, The Magdalene Sisters achieves the same effect in its rendering of a not-so-long-ago Ireland. The Magdalene Laundries were something of a juvenile detention center (although some "unreformed" women grew into old age there) for teenage girls who displayed any sort of sexual awareness. The misdeeds that land the film's three central figures, Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff), Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) and Rose (Dorothy Duffy) in one of the laundries are, respectively, being raped by a family member, smiling at a group of boys and bearing a child out of wedlock.

The girls are marched into a laundry run with an iron hand by Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan), and given what are tantamount to prison uniforms to wear. The environment is oppressive -- friendships are severely frowned upon and any wrong move can lead to physical punishment from the nuns. When Bernadette is caught trying to escape, she pays for it with her hair, which the young woman loses courtesy of an especially violent haircut. A simple-minded young woman named Crispina (Eileen Walsh) is sent to a mental institution after -- in an unforgettable scene -- she publicly accosts a priest who has been taking sexual liberties with her. As time slowly ticks by, the girls realize that there is no guarantee that their stay at the Magdalene Laundries will be temporary.

Certain aspects of the movie seem a bit far-fetched until a title card at the film's end reveals that the last of the laundries closed in 1996. While this doesn't completely eliminate one's skepticism as to the authenticity of the "bad guy" portrayals, it certainly makes the events of the film much more plausible. The problem some people will have with this movie is fairly obvious -- the characterizations are too black and white. When villains are drawn with no redeeming qualities whatsoever-- especially ones that pop up in films based in reality -- they can take on the appearance of a cartoon. But good filmmakers know how to utilize these possible exaggerations to enrich the drama, and Mullan jolts us with many devastating moments.

One scene that exemplifies the above occurs when two nuns amuse themselves by making the group of girls (about 20 or so in all) strip completely naked, so they can point out the one who has the most body hair, the biggest breasts, etc. On paper, the cackling nuns cruel dehumanization of the girls sounds plainly excessive in a film like this (it seems more at home in a Cinemax women in prison flick), but Mullan does such a superb job of extolling the virtues of the protagonists that our sympathy for them often overrides our outrage at the forces of evil. It's a tenuous balancing act that Mullan performs, but the success to failure ratio lands clearly on the side of the former. There is blame to assign for the atrocity that was the Magdalene Laundries, and the director makes sure that you understand where he's pointing the finger.

Mullan knows how far he can push his audience, and keeps you so invested in the plight of the central figures that you're willing to go where he takes you and accept his point of view. He also comprehends the difference between a grim but involving film and one that is hopelessly depressing. Instead of being dragged down into the muck, there's a distance from where you can observe the events. The nature of the material naturally triggers an emotional response, but thanks to the way the filmmaker handles the story, it's one that is grounded in something rational.

Known mostly as an actor (his performance in Ken Loach's My Name is Joe garnered all sorts of praise), Peter Mullan shows that he is an assured director whose sensibilities are well suited for the territory covered in The Magdalene Sisters. It's a powerful film that exercises just enough subtlety to have a sizeable impact which remains long after the initial gut-level reaction has faded away.

(A Miramax Films release. Opens in New York and Los Angeles on August 1, 2003. Expands to more cities at later dates.)

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