Peter Mullan's disturbing, controversial "The Magdalene Sisters" ranks with "Capturing The Friedmans" as one of this year's most difficult movies to watch. It's an unflinching, powerful look at religious and sexual hypocrisy.
It's about Ireland's infamous Magdalene Asylums, where young Catholic girls were sent for various sexual "sins" and were condemned to beatings, horrible living conditions, and slave labor for sometimes the rest of their lives. They were told that this was the only way to wash their souls clean and get into heaven.
Set in 1964, the movie starts with very short separate episodes about how each of the 3 main characters, Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff), Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) and Rose (Dorothy Duffy) were sent there. Margaret was raped by her cousin but it was her that was punished, Rose shamed her family by having a baby out of wedlock, and Bernadette, incredibly, was sent merely for lightly flirting with some boys outside the walls of her orphanage.
The girls become friends and support each other under the cruel, mentally and physically abusive nuns and priests, and try to escape. The last few minutes of this movie are some of the most suspenseful I've seen.
There aren't any even remotely sympathetic authority figures in this movie, and I can tell you that I've never wanted to physically harm a movie character more than I did Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan), a sadistic old hag who seems to enjoy nothing more than punishing and beating the girls for the slightest infractions. But I don't think the movie is one-sided. In a place like this, the situation IS one-sided.
It's hard to believe this kind of thing was happening in 1964; the places are little more than medieval torture chambers. But it's a true story. And what's more, the last Magdalene Asylum wasn't closed until 1996.
It's about Ireland's infamous Magdalene Asylums, where young Catholic girls were sent for various sexual "sins" and were condemned to beatings, horrible living conditions, and slave labor for sometimes the rest of their lives. They were told that this was the only way to wash their souls clean and get into heaven.
Set in 1964, the movie starts with very short separate episodes about how each of the 3 main characters, Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff), Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) and Rose (Dorothy Duffy) were sent there. Margaret was raped by her cousin but it was her that was punished, Rose shamed her family by having a baby out of wedlock, and Bernadette, incredibly, was sent merely for lightly flirting with some boys outside the walls of her orphanage.
The girls become friends and support each other under the cruel, mentally and physically abusive nuns and priests, and try to escape. The last few minutes of this movie are some of the most suspenseful I've seen.
There aren't any even remotely sympathetic authority figures in this movie, and I can tell you that I've never wanted to physically harm a movie character more than I did Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan), a sadistic old hag who seems to enjoy nothing more than punishing and beating the girls for the slightest infractions. But I don't think the movie is one-sided. In a place like this, the situation IS one-sided.
It's hard to believe this kind of thing was happening in 1964; the places are little more than medieval torture chambers. But it's a true story. And what's more, the last Magdalene Asylum wasn't closed until 1996.