The Magdalene Sisters Review
by Shannon Patrick Sullivan (shannon AT morgan DOT ucs DOT mun DOT ca)November 19th, 2003
THE MAGDALENE SISTERS (2002) / ***
Directed by Peter Mullan, from his screenplay. Starring Geraldine McEwan, Anne-Marie Duff, Nora-Jane Noone. Running time: 119 minutes. Rated AA for controversial subject matter by the MFCB. Reviewed on November 19th, 2003.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
Synopsis: For decades in Ireland, the Magdalene nuns offered salvation -- through years of toil and abuse -- to girls viewed as having committed mortal sins. Set in the mid-Sixties, this film follows three such women -- Margaret (Duff), who was raped by her cousin, flirtatious orphan Bernadette (Noone), and Rose (Dorothy Duffy), who gave birth out of wedlock -- as they endure horrors at a Magdalene asylum run by the tyrannical Sister Bridget (McEwan).
Review: While the atrocities committed by certain Christian orders may be a revelation to some, for those of us in Newfoundland, the scandals are basically old news. It's been a decade and a half since the sexual, physical and mental abuse committed by members of the Irish Christian Brothers at a St John's orphanage first came to light in this province, in all their grotesque and lamentable detail. Despite that, a film like "The Magdalene Sisters" still manages to inspire horror and regret: the subject matter is simply not something to which we become easily inured. Even the less religious tend to place a certain implicit amount of faith in the workings -- if not the doctrine -- of the Church and to see that faith so hideously transgressed is deeply disturbing. That said, writer/director Mullan has opted to leaven the shock of the Magdalene Sisters' vicious ways with strands of both black humour and prison-escape hijinks. The former works well -- a scene in which an abusive priest gets his comeuppance is particularly satisfying -- but I have more mixed feelings about the film's melodramatic climax. It's exciting enough, but sits uncomfortably against the movie's more serious aims. Still, "The Magdalene Sisters" is an important film which serves as a reminder that the methods of even our most trusted institutions should never be taken for granted.
Copyright © 2003 Shannon Patrick Sullivan.
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