The Magdalene Sisters Review

by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)
September 10th, 2003
THE MAGDALENE SISTERS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***

THE MAGDALENE SISTERS, written and directed by Peter Mullan, is a harrowing and mesmerizing story, which claims to be true, about the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland. Over 30,000 girls have been imprisoned there by the Catholic Church -- the last laundry closed in 1996 -- in order to purge the girls of their sins by forcing them into an indefinite sentence of hard labor and brutal treatment.

In Mullan's vision of the story, the laundries are like Catholic versions of Nazi concentration camps. One suspects that much of the story is true, but Mullan so overplays his hand that he needless plants doubts in your mind about his own veracity. The nuns are all sadistic, without a modicum of genuine compassion or piety. The parents of the imprisoned kids hate their offspring, without a hint of regret or support. Still, if you can stop worrying about the degree of the story's reality, the movie becomes a chilling and compelling drama.

So what "sins" did some of these fallen women commit? Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) is caught talking with boys through the fence of her orphanage. Rose (Dorothy Duffy) has a child out of wedlock. And Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) has the misfortune to have been raped. For these transgressions, they are sent to a hell on earth administered by nuns who think of themselves as the brides of Christ. Talking or other infractions can get the girls beaten viciously. They can't escape because, if they do, their families will likely beat them and bring them back to be incarcerated all over again.

In the perfect summation of their situation, one of the girls remarks, "All the mortal sins of the world wouldn't justify this place." The saddest thing that happens to them is that their spirits are irreparably broken. That is arguably even worse than the abuse they suffer.

THE MAGDALENE SISTERS runs 1:59. The film is rated R for " violence/cruelty, nudity, sexual content and language" and would be acceptable for older teenagers.

The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the Camera Cinemas.

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