Small Things Like These

Released 2024. Director: Tim Mielants

AFTER THE GLOBAL JUGGERNAUT OF OPPENHEIMER, Cillian Murphy’s follow-up role is a world apart from the scientist who altered the course of human history. Small Things Like These is an unassuming, modest movie that came and went without much fanfare or promotions. And yet, this is a quietly powerful performance from the newly minted Oscar winner I dare say more impactful than the man who created the atomic bomb.

In Small Things Like These, based on a novel by Claire Keegan, Murphy plays Bill, a coal merchant in a small town in Ireland in the 1980s. Bill is a simple family guy, soft spoken, hardworking, the sort of man who attends church every Sunday and who would never complain about anything. We see his kindness in the way he looks after his employees, his devotion to his wife and five daughters, and his sympathy for a young boy on the road Bill recognises from a struggling family in his neighbourhood.

On one of his deliveries to the local convent, Bill witnesses a young woman being forcibly admitted by her parents against her will. He knows all too well what will happen to an unwed mother and her baby in those times.

This encounter brings back memories of Bill’s childhood growing up at Mrs Wilson’s home where the boy and his mother were accepted and treated like family. Their circumstances would become clearer to us later on, as the movie’s message crystalises and we understand what the story is about, and how this period of Ireland’s history is perceived through the lens of Bill’s personal history.

Murphy’s ability to bring such depth to his character is remarkable, given that Bill is a man who leaves much of his emotions and thoughts internal. Bill doesn't say much, but his face tells us enough. In his restraint Murphy manages to communicate Bill’s compassion and struggle as he grapples with his conscience to do what’s right for his family as well as practical strangers in need.

Bill’s ethical dilemma deepens on a pre-dawn coal delivery to the convent when he comes upon the same woman whose name is Sarah, locked in the shed in darkness and freezing conditions in a state of distress. This leads Bill to the attention of Sister Mary, the head nun, whose threat to the future admissions of Bill’s daughters to the parish school couldn’t be more obvious if Bill wouldn’t turn a blind eye on the harsh treatment at the convent.

Emily Watson only has two scenes as Sister Mary and that’s enough to bring out her chilly authoritarianism and self-righteousness. As Bill sits with the congregation listening to Sister Mary preach about compassion, the irony isn’t lost on the man, knowing what he knows about how these state-funded and church-run institutions use intimidation, duplicity, bribery and cruelty to control and ruin lives.

What Bill does next is an act of love as well as defiance. His mother could’ve ended up like one of these women at the convent, abandoned by their families, punished by the church, and basically treated as sub-human, unforgivable and undeserving of grace. As a fatherless child who was given a chance to grow up in a supportive environment, whose mother was able to raise her child without judgement, Bill is returning the kindness that has shaped the man he’s become.

Small Things Like These is another indictment against the Magdalene laundries and the Catholic Church. For decades, “fallen women” were isolated, silenced and abused in the name of penance and their babies sold for adoption. Philomena, starring Judi Dench, is based on a true story and a good place to start if you’re not familiar with this appalling act of religious hypocrisy.

The townsfolk in the movie, many aware of what’s going on in the convent, choose to look away. Even Bill’s wife Eileen says to him: “If you want to get on in this life, there are things you have to ignore.” To be silent, to do nothing, to “get on in this life” while women suffer indignity and robbed of their own babies, is to be complicit. And since the 1920s, the level of wilful apathy has grown to become a burden of conscience.

In this regard, Small Things Like These is also a reflection of the collective shame and guilt that the nation is still processing. To view this chapter of history through the eyes of a man brings a different perspective, but as Cillian Murphy shows us, empathy and compassion is a universal attribute. When one man stands up, he can make a difference even though he can only save one.

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