Peter Mullan's `The Magdalene Sisters' is the true story of the Magdalene Asylums in Ireland, convents that house, among their residents, `wayward girls.' The film primarily focuses on Margaret, Bernadette, Rose and Crispina, girls who, for reasons that were either ridiculous or merely wrong, (but all horrible in their way) are sent to `do their time'. One is a girl who was raped by her cousin at a wedding, and when she told, was immediately shipped off. Another was an orphan who had grown up in the orphanage and was sent away because she was attracting outside boys with her beauty. The other two were unwed mothers. Regardless of the reason, all of the girls at the asylum are mistreated, forced to work like slaves in a laundry while the asylum profits from their work, are humiliated, beaten and some are raped by a local priest. While all of the nuns who preside over the asylum are more than willing to participate in these activities, the one who sits at the head of the table is Sister Bridget, a nun who makes Nurse Rached look like someone who is just in a slightly bad mood.
`The Magdalene Sisters' is strong on emotion and character development but the story, also written by Peter Mullan, is just average. I couldn't help but think that they chose to focus on the four most extremely sympathetic girls, (nothing in the film or screenplay negates this idea, that I could come up with) and therefore is simply pushing the horror instead of letting it develop for the viewer, all for a more dramatic result. Most `average' films can get away with this, but I expect more from `The Magdalene Sisters' because it had so much more potential. Of course, this was not the deal breaker for me it simply turns what could have been a three and a half star film into a three star film for me. `The Magdalene Sisters' is helped by its strong cast (all of the actresses were unknown to me and did quite a good job) and the script insofar as its character development and its pacing. While the girls they choose to focus on are surely quite sympathetic, their character development, particularly that of Margaret, is impressive. The end of the film does have one bizarre freeze frame that I actually chuckled at (certainly not a response you want to garner during a horrifyingly intense film) but all said, it is definitely an above average film. I definitely would not recommend it to anyone who is looking for a laugh, because other than the weird freeze frame thing, I didn't laugh once this is a drama through and through, and not an easy one at that.
--Shelly
`The Magdalene Sisters' is strong on emotion and character development but the story, also written by Peter Mullan, is just average. I couldn't help but think that they chose to focus on the four most extremely sympathetic girls, (nothing in the film or screenplay negates this idea, that I could come up with) and therefore is simply pushing the horror instead of letting it develop for the viewer, all for a more dramatic result. Most `average' films can get away with this, but I expect more from `The Magdalene Sisters' because it had so much more potential. Of course, this was not the deal breaker for me it simply turns what could have been a three and a half star film into a three star film for me. `The Magdalene Sisters' is helped by its strong cast (all of the actresses were unknown to me and did quite a good job) and the script insofar as its character development and its pacing. While the girls they choose to focus on are surely quite sympathetic, their character development, particularly that of Margaret, is impressive. The end of the film does have one bizarre freeze frame that I actually chuckled at (certainly not a response you want to garner during a horrifyingly intense film) but all said, it is definitely an above average film. I definitely would not recommend it to anyone who is looking for a laugh, because other than the weird freeze frame thing, I didn't laugh once this is a drama through and through, and not an easy one at that.
--Shelly