Director Colm Bairéad
Starring Catherine Clinch,Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett
Rated M
Score 6/6
Also Known as An Cailín Ciúin
A 9-year-old girl from a dysfunctional family goes to live with distant relatives for the summer. Living with a middle-aged farm couple, she discovers a new way of living.
For those of you who might be interested, The Quiet Girl is the Official submission of Ireland for the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category of the 95th Academy Awards in 2023. It should also be noted that The Quiet Girl is based on Foster, a 2010 novella in English by Claire Keegan. I know there might be a few of you out there who are put off of movies if there are subtitles. You really should give this a chance because yes there are subtitles but the movie switches from Irish Gaelic to English.
The first thing that struck me about The Quiet Girl was how beautifully it was shot and I was glad that the movie wasn’t as melodramatic as it could have been, if perhaps this was made in the USA. When I got the chance to talk to someone about the movie at the opening night of the Canberra leg of the Irish Film Festival it was pointed out to me that they thought that the Ireland presented on the screen had a 60’s or 70’s vibe. The Quiet Girl might come off as being a little slow in places, the filmmakers should be congratulated for earning the heartfelt ending. I would have liked to have seen more time devoted by the filmmakers showing more of Cáit’s family life before she is sent away for the summer because there really was not much substance to the roles of Cáit’s mum and dad. I loved Catherine Clinch’s (who was in her first ever movie role) performance as Cáit. I hope that she gets cast in more films in the future. It was really touching seeing the father/daughter relationship develop between Sean (portrayed by Andrew Bennett) and Cáit. The love and acceptance that Carrie Crowley brought to the role of Eibhlín was heartwarming.
