The Quiet Girl

Last night I went back to the Broadway to see The Quiet Girl, a recent Academy Award nominee for Best International Feature, and I was incredibly moved by this lovely coming of age story.  Nine-year-old Cait (Catherine Clinch) is the middle daughter of a large and impoverished family in rural Ireland.  Her ne'er-do-well father (Michael Patric) neglects their farm and spends his days drinking, gambling, and philandering and her exhausted mother (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) is overwhelmed by the imminent birth of another baby.  Cait is painfully shy and is often berated for wetting the bed and wandering off so it is decided that she will be sent to her mother's middle aged cousin Eibhlin Kinsella (Carrie Crowley) and her husband Sean (Andrew Bennett) in Waterford for the summer.  Eibhlin cares for her tenderly and, even though he is distant at first, Sean eventually bonds with her when she helps him on his dairy farm and when they make a game of her running down the lane to retrieve the post (which informs an incredibly poignant scene later in the movie that brought tears to my eyes).  Cait blossoms after experiencing kindness for the first time in her life and she helps the Kinsellas come to terms with the death of their son years earlier.  The action is slow and monotonous, with many scenes showing Cait peeling potatoes, walking to the well for water, and cleaning the barn, but every moment is fraught with meaning, especially one involving a cookie.  The cinematography is beautiful and I loved that people and places are often depicted from the perspective of a child.  Clinch gives an amazing physical performance because she conveys so much of what she is thinking and feeling without a lot of dialogue (you automatically know that she has suffered, with very little exposition, by the wary look in her eyes when she is around her father, mother, and sisters).  I loved this movie so much and I highly recommend seeking out this little gem.