(2022) – PG 13 – Drama – 1h 34m
Cast : Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennet, Catherine Clinch
Director: Colm Bairéad
PLOT:
Rural Ireland in 1981 and a quiet 9 year old girl, Cáit, is the odd one out amongst her dysfunctional family and her sneering peers.
As her pregnant mother prepares for the arrival of yet another mouth to feed, Cáit is sent to stay with distant relatives for the summer.
Away from her squabbling siblings and neglectful parents, she is cared for and nurtured by her foster parents, which offers Cáit the
opportunity to blossom and for healing relationships to form.
REVIEW:
The Quiet Girl is a quiet movie that uses moments of silence to speak volumes and allows characters to say infinitely more with subtle gestures than with simple dialogue.
It gives a voice to every child who was told they should be ‘seen and not heard’ and who felt like an outsider in their own home. It portrays how that child is viewed differently by the adults around it; an inconvenience; a burden; a tool to be manipulated; or the most precious gift in the world.
With both Catherine Clinch as Cáit and director Colm Bairéad making their feature debuts here, the performances are exquisite both in front of and behind the camera.
The Quiet Girl is slow-moving but wonderfully shot. The framing and colour palette is gorgeous.
The story is honestly portrayed.
The idiosyncrasies of individuals and the nuances of life in early ’80s rural Ireland are captured perfectly.
This movie grabs you so gently that you only really notice once it lets you go….like when you were a child holding your parents’ hand.