The Magdalene Sisters (2002) User Reviews

A Horrific and Gripping Recounting of True Evil

[lawprof · 8/10 · 9 August 2003]

"The Magdalene Sisters" is not, as some have claimed, a one-dimensional anti-Catholic film exploiting what are arguably especially gruesome atrocities. It is a fact-based drama about three teenage girls who found themselves in 1964 sentenced to work in a laundry run by an Irish religious order for an indefinite term and under conditions that made most audience members shudder.

In three brief vignettes before the main title, the girls are introduced. One is brutally raped by a cousin at a wedding while priests perform traditional Irish songs. Immediately telling a woman, instead of support she becomes the subject of a hasty conspiracy to spirit the rapist from the wedding and to place her in the Magdalene asylum.

A second girl gives birth to a baby - in the not long ago past, illegitimacy was the label. She is pressured by a priest to surrender the baby boy and then she, too, is hustled off to the asylum.

The third victim is in an orphanage where she gets under the director's skin for no other offense than she is pretty and boys from the neighborhood crowd a fence to call down to her. Transfer to the asylum follows.

The Magdalene laundries made money for the order running them and the asylum to which the three girls were committed is, in this film, a moral charnel house. Sister Bridget, the head nun, interviews the girls while fingering, with almost erotic delight, rolls of money. Her desk sports a photo of President Kennedy but a picture of Ilse Koch would have been a more suitable iconographic representation of her character. She is a sadist, first class.

What follows is almost unrelieved tedium for the girls interspersed with brutal physical chastisement and agonizing sexual humiliation inflicted by perverted nuns. Sexual orientation isn't my issue, it's the awful victimization of helpless young girls.

Through the fine acting of the cast the complexity of relationships and the nature of choices become engrossing. To accommodate or to resist. To comply or to engage in sabotage, even in small ways as a declaration of non-surrender. Sabotage is possible but can an inexperienced and angry teen foresee the consequences of a minor act of resistance? An anticipated humorous defiance may well have tragic results.

The film centers on the three girls as well as several other asylum inmates ranging from a young woman descending slowly into irreversible madness and an elderly crone who believes her lifetime of servitude guarantees entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. This tortured soul is the nuns' "capo," the inmate without whose help the asylum's strictures can't be enforced. Comparison to the Gulag camps and the Nazi concentration camps is apropos.

"The Magdalene Sisters" doesn't portray all the girls as angels but it does show the nuns and the occasional male clergy as evil exploiters and sadistic hypocrites. Is that fair? The end credits report that some 30,000 women were involuntarily placed in Magdalene asylums until the last one closed in 1996. Were all inmates so tortured and beaten? I don't know but these three girls certainly have had THEIR experience recorded for a population that appears to have turned a blind eye to what should have been a national scandal decades earlier. Their life after the asylum is reported in the end credits. All paid a price for a stolen adolescence.

The asylum in this film is pure evil, religious doctrine run amuck in the quest for money through cheap labor and in the riotous unleashing of perversity. English judges for centuries have often used a word rarely found in American case law to describe persons and events: the word is wicked. This film projects an unending parade of wicked people performing wicked acts. It doesn't condemn Catholicism, it indicts the operation by the church in Ireland of one type of soul and body destroying evil. The Church can no more defend the Magdalene asylums than it can the predatory pedophiles in the priesthood. That's the simple reality.

Audience members loudly gasped and a number cried during the showing. This isn't a film for the fainthearted or those who want their illusions about a bucolic and verdant Ireland filled with dancing and music unaffected by the reality of a genuine tragedy now coming to light.

8/10.

From my experience with nuns - a somewhat restrained film

[aquamanda · 8/10 · 8 December 2010]

The Magdelene Sisters is a good portrayal of the very real behaviour of nuns. I am English and emigrated to Canada with my family. I attended a catholic school which was run by these social misfits, and from my very first day, I was persecuted for the following crimes: I had a short hair cut, my hand writing was not neat, I did not know the words to the Canadian national anthem, I had an English accent, I was good at drawing, I failed to smile at the right time during assembly, I slipped on some ice in the school grounds and hurt myself. etc., etc., etc. I was hit countless times during my few months there - before I left the horrible place. I was constantly referred to as "the green horn Englishman",mocked and imitated because of my accent, and belittled because I didn't know the Canadian national anthem, which we were required to sing every morning before lessons began - (I'd only been in the country weeks - I soon learned it). I was kept behind after school regularly because my handwriting was "unacceptable", causing me to miss my bus home (I had a long way to travel). I was once hit across the back of my head with the words "you write like a boy, you talk like a boy - you even look like a boy". I was eight years old. My sister, who was ten, received remarkably similar treatment. I was terrified to tell my parents because I thought they would speak to the nuns and I would be worse off. Instead they thankfully took my sister and me out of school after she admitted what was going on. I have nothing but contempt for these people. I feel that anything which exposes them as they really are can only be of value to society, above all, for the protection of children.

I'd commit any sin, mortal or otherwise, to get the hell out of here.

[lastliberal-853-253708 · 8/10 · 9 January 2014]

What is the difference between the parents of the girls in the asylum and the nuns who ran it? Absolutely nothing; they were both guilty of unspeakable crimes against these girls.

What is the difference between the nuns and Southerners? Absolutely nothing; they both used people as slaves.

The nuns silence as a weapon to keep the women from getting to know each other. One woman (Mary Murray) who ran away is brought back by her father (Peter Mullan), who beats her up in front of the women in the dormitory. Her hair is then cut off by Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan) in an attempt to further degrade her. In another instance, the three new arrivals along with others are forced to stand naked in front of a nun who ridicules their body parts. Crispina (Eileen Walsh) is sexually abused by a priest.

The Catholic Church has never apologized for the horrendous and inhumane treatment of over 10,000 girls that were imprisoned in these asylums over a period of 70 years, ending as recently as 1996. To this day, various Christian, Jewish and Islamic fundamentalists continue to subjugate women on account of their fear and hatred of female sexuality and freedom.

Truly moving film

[raja-swamy · 10/10 · 26 September 2005]

I would give this film 20 out of 10! Excellent acting, nimble direction and very well crafted representations of real-historical events and persons. Eileen Walsh should get a special award for an incredible performance as Crispina - Eileen, you are fantastic! I look forward to more from you! What shook me was the realization that this movie captured the interplay of Dickensian exploitation interwoven with the fascistic barbarity of the church. The laundry was a slave-plantation par excellence as it ground its physically, sexually and emotionally exploited slaves within an atmosphere of sheer terror and self-hatred - we deserve what we get because we are guilty - shame on us - this is what the masters of every plantation on this planet sought to instill in slaves.

What I would have liked to see developed further was how this laundry-plantation fit within the wider Irish society - whose clothes were being washed, and what was their relationship to the people who were incarcerated here? Religion's role in the sheer brutalization of its adherents has been evidenced throughout history - no mass religion has brought anything other than terror, subjugation and self-hatred to women - this film proves it beyond doubt! As men, we are beneficiaries of such brutalities to women - and we are like Margaret's brother - who sheepishly mutters some nonsense about waiting to grow up while his sister lived in hell. What pained me most in this film was the terrible scene of uniformed men dragging Crispina out of the dormitory - to her destruction - and here the most painful part was noting that none of the women could shake off their terror to help their sister who cried for help. The scene captured in a brutal moment, the truth that tyranny can only thrive with our collective fear. Religion like other totalitarian ideologies rules by internalized terror.

Enough, go on and watch this movie, its worth every tear you shed, because in the end, you will find that being disturbed makes you recognize the suffering of every Crispina, Margaret, Rose, Bernadette among us.

Very disturbing, very well made, very unfortunate story

[Joe T · 4 October 2010]

As already well noted, this is a very well crafted film that captures and portrays some of the lowest possibilities of human endeavour. The movie has it's flaws, but drawing empathy from the viewer is not one of them and this it does so well that I was emotionally exhausted by the end of it.

The religious dimension of the film is an interesting one. Clearly people wanting opportunity for anti-Catholic or anti-religious diatribe would find plenty of fuel here, but I think the more reasonable viewer (religious or not) would see the issues raised for what they are - a perversion and distortion of Christian faith perpetuated and maintained by flawed institutional systems. In this vein, it's not necessarily an anti-religious film and not even anti-establishment as such, but it does show a terrible side of those things and, moreover, illustrate how human beings can take any ideology, belief system etc. and turn it to meet their own personal sadistic and evil ends.

A sad and horrible film and one that reminds us all of what not do to, how not to treat people and how we should be ever vigilant as a society against evil and cruelty no matter the guise it takes.

Teenage girls are sent to the Magdalene Laundries and left in the hands of criminal minds

[yjloiselle · 10/10 · 1 September 2007]

Based on true accounts and set in Ireland in the 1960's, three teenage girls are sent, against their will, to a convent for various reasons (pregnancy, rape, "too pretty"). The Magdalene Asylums, in existence until 1996, were not unlike the "orphanages" run by the Catholic Church in Québec, during the Duplessis years. The inmates were treated as slaves, made to work in laundries and treated cruelly by those one could never imagine working in God's name.

These unlucky girls, believers in the all-powerful Catholic church, suffer cruelty at the hands of nuns and brothers, often made to feel ashamed and of their sexuality, generating mental illness and self-loathing. The struggle, throughout the plot, is to make it out alive, despite the Asylum's religious roots to save prostitutes as early as the mid 1800's.

This story, brilliantly acted, directed and written leaves virtually nothing to the imagination, which is intentional right from the beginning. The brutality is shown for what it is; in fact, one of the original "inmates" later described the movie as much worse in reality.

At a loss for words, I do not have the eloquence to do this movie justice. If you are not afraid to question the Catholic Church's actions, or have suffered at the hands of it -as my French-Canadian family did- I strongly recommend this artful and historically-revealing movie.

A Far Cry from the Leprechauns

[JamesHitchcock · 7/10 · 12 December 2006]

The "Magdalene" of the title has nothing to do with the famous Cambridge college. Rather, the film concerns what was, until recently, a little-known aspect of recent Irish history, the Magdalene Laundries or Magdalene Asylums. These were Roman Catholic institutions, originally founded in the 19th century, as homes for penitent "fallen women" (that being the contemporary euphemism for prostitutes). By the period when the film is set (the 1960s), their scope had greatly increased, and the great majority of their inmates were no longer former prostitutes. The laundries were used as quasi-penal institutions for any women, especially single mothers, whose sexual conduct offended against strict Catholic notions of morality.

None of the three major characters in this film (all of whom arrive in the laundry on the same day) is a prostitute and only one, Margaret, is an unmarried mother. Rose was placed in the asylum because she was sexually assaulted by a relative and the family found this the best way of covering up the scandal. Bernadette was also placed there by her family, not because she was actually promiscuous but because she was felt to be too flirtatious with the local boys and therefore in "moral danger". Once inside the laundry, the girls are treated more or less as slaves, being forced to work long hours in exchange for starvation rations and accommodation in a Spartan dormitory. The idea is that hard work and suffering will purify the soul and lead to redemption, but the nuns who run the laundry seem more interested in the profits they can make from the girls' unpaid labour than they do in their spiritual welfare.

There were several things that I found frightening about this film. The first is that the things it depicts could have happened at all. More frightening is that fact that the things it depicts happened, not in the remote past or in some totalitarian dictatorship, but in a Western European democracy in the second half of the twentieth century- the last Magdalene Laundry did not close until 1996- with the connivance of the authorities and of much of the population. The Ireland we see is a far cry from the Tourist Board stereotypes of leprechauns, Guinness, folk music and happy-go-lucky people.

Perhaps the most frightening thing of all, however, is the suggestion that many of the inmates accepted their virtual enslavement by the system. The laundries do not form part of the official Irish penal system and their inmates have never been convicted of any crime for which they could lawfully be imprisoned. (When one girl attempts to escape she is dragged back to the laundry not by the police but by her outraged father, who regards her as having brought shame on the family). The nuns have no legal powers to detain these women against their will, and although the doors are kept locked at night, there are no armed guards or barbed wire which could foil a determined attempt to escape. Yet although Rose and Bernadette try to escape their captivity, and Margaret is eventually released by her brother, few of the others are willing to join them, and one even collaborates with the nuns in preventing escape attempts. The inmates are by no means all young- indeed, there are even elderly women who have presumably spent the greater part of their lives in the laundries. The implication is that the inmates are kept in the asylums less by physical coercion than by their own fears of what life will hold for them should they leave, by their sense of rejection by their families and by the guilt feelings which the nuns try to inculcate in them.

There were two scenes which did not work for me. One was where the nuns force the girls to parade naked in front of them. The obvious overtones of this scene came, for me, too close to that old canard, beloved of those who combine religious prejudice with prurience, that nunneries are all hotbeds of lesbianism. The other was where the priest, suffering from a skin irritation, rips all his vestments off while the simple-minded Crispina repeatedly shouts at him "You are not a man of God!", a scene that would have been more at home in a surreal farce than a serious drama.

The standard of acting, however, was uniformly high, even though few of the actresses involved are well-known. If I had to single any out for praise, it would be Nora-Jane No one as Bernadette, Eileen Walsh as the tortured Crispina and Geraldine McEwan as the frighteningly sadistic Sister Bridget. This is in many ways a harrowing film, with its depictions of cruelty and sadism, but it is a film well worth watching. At times I wondered if there was a hidden Unionist agenda- the film does nothing to dispel, and much to confirm, the standard Ulster Protestant view of Eire as a priest-ridden banana republic. Those who regard the film as anti-Catholic, however, should remember that cruelties of this nature are not something exclusive to Ireland, or to the Catholic church, but can occur whenever and wherever religious believers, of whatever creed, allow their faith to be distorted into an instrument of oppression. 7/10

The other, other kind of terrorism.

[Anonymous_Maxine · 9/10 · 1 December 2004]

I inadvertently found myself watching a whole string of movies the other day about people being tortured or torturing themselves, without even looking for movies like that. I saw The Magdalene Sisters, Osama, and that IMAX film Everest, all in the same day, and was surprised at their similarities, particularly between the first two. The Magdalene Sisters and Osama are strikingly similar in that they are both about religious terrorism, specifically centered around women. Osama was a look at how the Taliban keeps women under tight control, not allowing them even the tiniest freedom (indeed, women could be arrested and severely punished for such crimes as walking alone in public or speaking to a man, even for such dangerous statements as, 'My father is sick.'), while The Magdalene Sisters is about the Catholic Church in Ireland in disturbingly recent times, severely punishing women as a result of what appears to be the Church's frothing and highly irrational fear of sex.

The film focuses on the plights of three women in particular, who have all committed 'crimes' of varying nature but who are all punished by being sent to the Magdalene laundry for an indefinite period of time. One girl, Rose, commits the greatest crime having a child out of wedlock, which neither of her parents will even look at. Interestingly, she had the child because an abortion would have been a sin. Bernadette makes the mortal mistake of flirting with boys outside the orphanage she lived in, and Margaret is raped at a family gathering by a cousin, only to be shipped off herself when she reports it to family members.

At the Magdalene laundry, the girls are subjected to psychological abuse and endless physical toil, all under the old theory that it will cleanse their souls. Some of the women that the three girls in question encounter as they enter the laundry have been there for decades, and they eventually figure out that the only way that they are ever going to get out of there is to escape. Bernadette is especially aware of this, and makes increasing efforts to escape, for which she is brutally punished.

I am genuinely curious to know what path of logic leads people to believe that such practices in the name of religion can have any beneficial value. The Taliban has taken religious torture to its extreme, debasing themselves and their religion by performing unbelievably inhuman acts in the name of their God, and it appears that, while certainly not on the same level of cruelty, the Catholic Church has performed similar crimes against humanity. That the Catholic Church in Ireland promptly condemned the film is not surprising, but if such things are being committed under its name (and indeed continued being committed well into the late 1990s), I should think that the Church would at least allow the film to be shown so that people would be aware of such abuses, which tarnish the reputation of the Church. I believe that it would have been possible for the Church to defend its own validity while at the same time acknowledging abuses committed in its name, especially if the accusations of cruelty were untrue, although in this case they were not. Running, however, only makes you look guilty.

The Magdalene laundry is presided over by a nun who is simply evil. She is an elderly lady and generally soft-spoken, but this woman makes the wicked witch of the west look like a prancing schoolgirl. The viciousness of the rest of the Sisters of Mercy radiates off of this woman like some kind of sinister force, delicately but successfully walking the line between illustrating the harshness of a brutal religious regime and creating a movie monster. Her character is human, but she's not far from being a monster.

It's disheartening to see the things that people do in the name of religion, especially when the crimes are something as little as behaving like a normal person. There are natural and perfectly healthy behaviors that unfortunately are violations of arbitrary religious laws, which are subsequently punished with outlandish punishments like those seen in this movie. Religion is thrown into reverse, causing pain and suffering rather than offering an escape from it, shown in a modern setting that is so backwards that it could just as easily have taken place in the 1600s.

You're not a man of God

[Bored_Dragon · 7/10 · 19 February 2019]

Magdalene Asylum were institutions funded by the Catholic Church in Ireland in which young girls served a "prison sentence" for moral dangers for themselves and others. Moral offenses in the form of pregnancy outside of marriage, flirting with boys, and even being a victim of rape, brought these young girls to these laundries, with the legal consent of their fathers or family. The girls were brought without trial and were sentenced to forced labor for the rest of their lives. They suffered a barbaric treatment from the nuns and priests who led these institutions, justified by a conservative hysteria about sex. Magdalene Laundries destroyed about 30,000 women, and the last of these perverse institutions was closed only in 1996.

7/10

Dirty washing in public

[john-3109 · 10/10 · 4 March 2006]

Peter Mullan's (2002) film is based primarily upon the TV documentary 'Sex in a Cold Climate' by Steve Humphries which was first aired on RTE (Ireland) and BBC (England) in 1998. The documentary records the recollections of four Irish women who spent their youth and a good proportion of their adult lives as involuntary guests of uncompromising Roman Catholic nuns.

The film is set in a particular example of this institution which, somewhat akin to the English workhouses of the late 19th and early 20th century, became established in Ireland after the Second World War. The Magdelene Laundries took their name from the biblical figure of Mary Magdalene, a 'fallen woman' whom Christ befriended.

We join the main heroines of the movie - Margarette (Anne-Marie Duff), Bernadette (Norah-Jane No one), Rose (Dorothy Duffy) and Crispina (Eileen Walsh) in cameo as their entrance scholarships for the Magdelene Laundry are being sat.

What's most uncomfortable about this part of the movie, is trying to work out what's going on. Trying to work out what it is that's being whispered and what will be the upshot of it, and why. At first, it seems like the soundtrack of the film and the contrast have failed. But before long, it becomes obvious that the soundtrack of the film and the contrast have succeeded. The dark and deafening silence surrounding the circumstances under which these young women are being consigned to the unwelcome stewardship of the Magdalene Sisters comes through loud and muted.

We follow their induction into the laundry by Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan), ably assisted by the Sisters Jude (Frances Healy), Clemantine (Eithne McGuinness) and Augusta (Phyllis MacMahon) who contrive with formally celibate gentlemen like Father Fitzroy (Daniel Costello) to represent a world in which God's greatest ideal is achieved through punishment and penitence.

As the film progresses, we begin to understand why it is no accident that these institutions should have been laundries. They could - after all - have been bakeries, dairies, canneries or places where mailbags are sewn.

With every garment that passes through the process, unmentionable filth is cleansed - if the Sisters are to be believed. And if the Sisters are to be believed, the sins of the teenagers and the route to Heaven is bound up in hot water, salt and flagellation.

And as we follow these unsaintly girls on their hapless journey, we finally learn that salvation is as straightforward as a letter we are not privileged to read and a brother who arrives with a suitcase - as if there is anything that anybody could possibly want to carry away from a place like this.

This film is a powerful elegy to the suffering of these unfortunate girls who, constrained to silence for so long, have finally found a voice.

Harsh and upsetting drama (***)

[Ronin47 · 7/10 · 19 October 2003]

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.

The Nazi's Took Lessons From The Sisters Of Charity

[httpmom · 9/10 · 15 April 2004]

Enough has been said about the plot and characters by now that I am only going to add a personal note...which I strongly feel I must. I had to wait for this movie to be released on DVD before I got to see it....having waited patiently since I first read it won awards at the Venice Film Festival.

I am so grateful that Peter Mullen took this project on and that it met with such controversy because that was exactly what was needed for the film to get recognized and viewed by as many people as possible. The more people who see the film the better! The wonderful advantage of having waited for the DVD release is that it came with the brilliant documentary, ‘Sex In A Cold Climate` which inspired the movie.

As a X-Roman Catholic and a survivor of what I refer to as my incarceration...an oppressive Catholic education/indoctrination by the Sisters Of Charity (1957-1958) and the Ursuline Sisters (1959-1969), both old orders of the Catholic Church originating in Europe. I can state with battle-scarred alacrity that behavior as depicted in this movie is not only factual but not nearly cruel enough to tell the true story. From my experience...the Nazi's must have taken lessons in depravity and wickedness from the Sisters Of Charity! These were old world religious orders with dogmas and superstitions that have not changed since Christ's time. The practitioners of this primitive cult like barbarism were mostly ignorant of anything resembling reason or logic not to mention...science. The comparisons to the Taliban is not all that far fetched. Of course there was one or two nuns who had an occasional bout of compassion, but they were not only a minority, they were also downcast within the system. I also realize that not all Catholic orders are of the same cloth as the strict Roman Catholic variety, but I was born into the Irish Catholic variety...one of the worst.

It took me years and a loving cheerful husband to undo the deep melancholia I felt from having grown up with this kind of repression. Now, as a middle aged adult my depression has amalgamated into a outspoken and healthy anger at a religious institution and church that has been allowed for millenniums to abuse it's power. The psychological methods employed by The Catholic establishment is so devoid of compassion and full of hate that had it still existed today in America it would be considered illegal. The only reason these zealot fanatics got away with their brutal treatment of innocent children for so long is because the people they tormented were brainwashed with eternity in hell for even thinking of questioning such God given authority. I spit on that authority!

This movie is not an exaggeration! And it's not restricted to the religious orders in Ireland. If anything it didn't go far enough in depicting the true story. Not enough nefariousness has been said of an institution that routinely turned it's eyes on child molestation and the persecution of women perpetrated by it's leaders. I am so glad that all these Catholic Church and School survivors are suing the church and therefore bringing the atrocities to light. And I applaud Peter Mullen for making such a forceful case against inhumanity in the name of organized religion of any flavor. Christian, Catholic, Islam, Jew...they're all the same...it's all about control and power...and too often it's an aberration of it's original intent.

The Magdalene Sisters

[i-ammon · 7/10 · 30 March 2006]

The film "The Magdalene Sisters", directed by Peter Mullan in 2003 documents the rough life of four young Irish women who were given into the Magdalene Asylums of the 1960s and 1970s, where they have to work hard in a laundry under the strict supervision of some nuns, who keep them obeying through sadistic punishments. The Magdalene women have to bear up against sexual, physical and mental abuse in consequence for the sins they have committed.

Those horrible scenes which show the inmates struggle to maintain honor and pride are as hard to watch as it is frustrating. It allows you to get a feeling of the desperate situation and the bleakness all in the convent. The film represents the dark atmosphere authentically and is a good balanced critic of society.

A more realistic review

[holytrinityym · 3/10 · 30 April 2007]

The severe living conditions in Catholic Church-run laundries in 1964 Ireland are sensationalized to the point of caricature in writer-director Peter Mullan's problematic melodrama "The Magdalene Sisters" (Miramax). The fact that the austere Magdalene asylums existed is undeniable. Undoubtedly, a number of young women sent there by their parents or guardians were treated cruelly. However, Mullan puts forth an oversimplified, worst-case scenario in which every nun is a monster and the only priest connected with the laundry has forced a simple young woman confined there to yield to his sexual demands. An audience has a right to wonder whether the film is attempting to throw light on a painful, little-known situation or merely genuflecting at the altar of sensationalism while exploiting others' suffering.

The film centers on four young women who were sent off to perform manual labor in facilities known as the "Magdalene laundries" in order to be spiritually rehabilitated for their alleged sins of the flesh.

Mullan's narrative presents them as physically and verbally abused by the nuns in charge of the laundry as if the four actually existed. However, these characters are fictitious, made up from composites of stories Mullan heard from those who lived in the workhouses -- a fact muddied by the coda that appears at the end of the film explaining "what became of" each of the characters.

As such, the movie's treatment of events exploits the facts to make it less a story of the four than a film aimed at positioning the church as one-dimensionally wicked. The nuns pictured are so uniformly sadistic and hypocritical that they make the infamous Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" seem like Mother Teresa.

Unlike what follows, the film's opening scene is well-crafted. Using scant dialogue, it cinematically depicts young Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) being lured upstairs during a wedding reception by her cousin, who then rapes her and proceeds to pin the blame on her. The next day her scornful parents turn her over to a priest who delivers her to a Magdalene laundry workhouse at the same time that orphaned flirt Bernadette (Nora-Jane No one) and unwed mother Rose (Dorothy Duffy) arrive.

Insisting that they atone for their sins through hard manual labor, silence and no contact with the outside world, vicious Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan) brooks no questions and terrorizes the trio. Already veering toward madness is another unwed mother, the mentally challenged Crispina (Eileen Walsh), who believes she can communicate with her sister and toddler through her cherished St. Christopher medal. Overseeing the women's physical and spiritual well-being is a coven of Gestapo-like nuns.

This is the set-up. But beyond it, caricature trumps character. In place of narrative, the film unreels one horror after another on the four young women in lurid, episodic fashion: brutal beatings and malicious mind games by the nuns, including a group shower-room scene involving extended full frontal nudity and taunting insults aimed at dehumanizing their humiliated charges. The nuns, presented as consistently evil, money-grubbing, merciless hags, have no emotional depth. They are as exaggerated in their sadism as Ingrid Bergman is in celestial benevolence in "The Bells of St. Mary's" -- the film Sister Bridget sheds a crocodile tear over at a Christmas screening. Not one ounce of human kindness -- not to mention Christian compassion -- can be found under any wimple or collar.

This painting with broad brush strokes is better suited for the propagandist than the dramatist. Regrettably, drama is jettisoned along with objectivity since this kind of stacking the deck drains the narrative of any inner tension. The result is a cavalcade of cartoonish vignettes which present to viewers about as nuanced a picture of Irish nuns as 1915's "The Birth of a Nation" did of African-Americans. This pervasive shallowness extends to the girls themselves. Despite overall strong performances, they serve as little more than props, punching bags for the sinister nuns to vent their fury.

While some blame is attached to parents who so readily banished daughters in difficulty to the harsh conditions of these laundries, any attempt to understand the forces that shaped these institutions, which had much to do with the distinct religious and cultural milieu of the time and place in which they flourished, is rejected. The righteous indignation felt for the girls, while justified by the suffering they endured, is wrung out of the audience through cheap, kick-the-puppy melodrama where the audience is manipulated to cheer when the nuns get a taste of their own medicine.

It's distressing that any Irish women had to endure the deplorable conditions of these workhouses. But the film never attempts to move beyond shrill finger-pointing toward any meaningful insights. In place of a sensitive examination of abuse of religious power, Mullan's simplistic approach in depicting all the religious in his script as gleeful villains only serves to undermine the credibility of his film.

The nuns in this film never sang 'How do solve a Problem Like Maria?'

[zbenmt · 26 April 2004]

Their idea of problem solving was more based on the Marque de Sade's idea of fun. If you are in the mood for sadism and horror...this is the film for you!!

I could not imagine that such a place as the laundry run by The Order of Magdelene Sisters could exist until I saw this film. The four girls that the story focused on Rose, Bernadette, Margaret and Crispina existed. I have been to Ireland and seen the beauty of that country. I once envied the life of those lucky enough to live there. I don't any longer.

The movie does not attack the Catholic faith so much as give a mindset of the 1960's in Ireland. My word here in the USA hippies were making love not war and these poor girls were only being human beings. I don't like to share the details of a film, but consider that one girl was an orphan and sent to the Magdelene's because she liked to flirt!! One was sent because she was raped!! My goodness, how barbaric can people be? film. And these people were nuns and priests for heaven's sake. Ah and let me not forget the parents who sent their daughters to that place. I will never complain about my parents again. Promise.

Please watch this film.

Great moving drama

[Intertextual · 10/10 · 2 February 2005]

This film will move you that is for sure. It is amazing to think such atrocities went on in the name of God. Well I guess it isn't really but this film lets you experience the single mindedness and hypocrisies of people who hold such fanatical beliefs. The film takes you on a journey through the eyes of helpless young women. These women are victims of the church and all its cruelty. We see how their spirits are affected by such unjust behavior. You will feel and cry along with them. You will hope along with them. It is amazing that anyone in these kind of circumstances could ever find any hope.

Peter Mullan had done a superb job at writing and directing. He even plays a small part in the film.

The script is very well structured. It builds it dramatic tension nicely. The performances all round are very strong.

I am sure you will enjoy this outstanding drama.

Wow...

[vip-danii · 10/10 · 14 July 2016]

I'm not going to act like a smarta** (like many of the other reviewers) attempting to rationalize the views and beliefs of the 19th century Irish and the influence of Catolicism on the society back then. Instead, I'm going to share my impressions of it, speaking as a casual observer: The first thing that comes to mind is... "What the f***!?" I mean, girls, can you imagine being sent to a place like The Magdalene Sisters for, erm, being pretty, flirting with guys, or being a single mother? No, really - WTF? It seems utterly ridiculous and inconceivable. What about your family disowning you and selling you into slavery if some bastard molested you? I guess if such twisted pseudo-religious extremism was in place today, 95% of today's' women would have to be confined to an asylum.

I was quite bothered by the fact that Margaret's family chose to send her off to that awful place (after she was brutally raped by her cousin), instead of calling the rapist to justice and helping their daughter cope with the crime she fell victim to. I don't know what kind of religion condones rape, and, to add insult to injury, considers the *victim* a sinner. I can't imagine how brainwashed and f***ed up people back then must've been. A teenage girl is taken advantage of, yet SHE is the one being punished and getting disowned by her family, while the perpetrator (the rapist) just gets away with it and goes on as if nothing had happened. Where is the logic behind this, and what holy book preaches such "morals"? And Bernadette? She is confined to the asylum merely for the fact that she is moderately attractive and extroverted. This is just totally out of order, seriously.

Speaking of Bernadette... she was, obviously, the highlight of the movie. I only wish she would've hit one of the despicable nuns as she and Rose (Patricia) were escaping.

I also liked Anne-Marie Duff - the actress has a certain je ne sais quoi.

The most tragic of all was certainly Crispina. It was clear from the start that she's not like the other girls - she's already broken beyond repair and her mental health issues are irreversible. It's no surprise that she perished at 24... and of anorexia! How sad indeed...

The Magdalene Sisters asylum seemed like a devilish concentration camp rather than a religious organization. I don't think there was ever anything remotely "Godly" about an institution like that. Moreover, real-life survivors have reported that the conditions were actually much worse compared to those portrayed in the movie. Oh, the horror! It's an excellent movie, though. They couldn't have picked a better cast. I can't imagine anyone else playing Bernadette... well, anyone except for Sherilyn Fenn, who has exactly the same dark, sultry look. The other cast members were also chosen perfectly, and though none of them are mega-famous (in fact - most are relatively unknown), the performance surpasses that of well-known Hollywood stars by *miles*.

Anyway, I was impressed with the movie, and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone interested in the subject matter.

There aren't too many happy things about this film

[FilmOtaku · 7/10 · 24 August 2004]

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

Powerful historical drama

[sketchfordawn · 10/10 · 1 February 2010]

The Magdalene Sisters chronicles the experiences of three young girls in the infamous Magdalene Laundries. The Laundries were Catholic clergy-run organizations in operation from the 19th century up until the late 20th century in Ireland. Girls were sent to work in these institutions for suspicion of having sex outside of marriage, showing provocative character, or for simply being "too pretty". Mullen succeeds in exposing the outright abuse that went on in these institutions at a time when the Church was seen to be Ireland's highest moral authority.

The film focuses on the stories of three "fallen" girls who have all been landed in the Laundries for sins they didn't commit. What is most shocking about this film is the utter sadism and cruelty of the nuns who run the asylum. They force the girls to work beyond endurance in abysmal conditions, and routinely subject them to humiliation of an unthinkable nature. In one scene, the nuns line the naked girls up and judge who is the hairiest, who has the biggest breasts, etc. Mullen wanted the girls to appear natural, and insisted that the they not shave themselves or pluck their eyebrows prior to and during filming. No one is wearing make-up and all the girls wear the same unflattering garb. This adds to the realism of the film and brings his asylum closer to the real Laundries.

The clever polarization of character personalities made for some interesting clashes. There is Bernadette, who is fiery and headstrong; Margaret, a responsible girl with a strong sense of morality. Rose, whose good nature endeared me quickly to her. And Crispina, who is just plain bonkers. I found the development of Margaret's character to be particularly interesting: The more oppression she is subjected to, the more she comes to value her independence. This all culminates until her brother finally comes to collect her after four years. Upon realising her newfound freedom, she wont even have her brother tell her to hurry so they can get going: "Don't you dare tell me what to do! Don't you ever dare tell me what to do!"

Eileen Walsh was brilliant in this movie. Her portrayal of the simple but eccentric inmate Crispina certainly added a lot of colour to the film. Despite the obviously bleak theme, there are some humorous moments in the film and these usually involve Crispina. This was a very difficult role to take on, as Crispina's theatrical and over-dramatic personality required Walsh to portray such a wide array of emotions. So convincing was Walsh's performance that I found myself feeling real compassion for the girl. She's not all there and is virtually clueless about the world, which makes her fate all the more poignant. Walsh sacrificed vanity more than any of the other girls for this role, which is also to be admired. Her performance stood out for me as one of the highlights of the film.

This film should appeal to the secular-minded and those who are critical of religion in general. I don't know if Mullen himself holds any biases in this area, but he certainly succeeds in highlighting just how detrimental an effect fundamentalism can have on a society. It has torn the girls' families apart, stripped them of their independence and, for some of them, has resulted is the considerable deterioration of their mental health. The girls enter the asylum as strong, healthy individuals who, over time, come to forget how to interact properly with other people and find it difficult to distinguish what is real and what isn't. One of the prevailing themes in The Magdalene Sisters is the hypocrisy of devout Christians, who claim to model themselves off of Christ, yet are so un Christ-like in their treatment of the "fallen" in society. This is especially true of the nuns, who are supposed to serve as women of Christ, yet fail to follow in his example of forgiveness and love.

One aspect of this movie I found particularly interesting was its depiction how society viewed women in the era. The treatment of the Magdalene girls raises questions about the injustices and double-standards which existed in the early 20th century. Even though the girls of Magdalene are not at fault for being raped, getting pregnant or simply being attractive, it is the women who are punished and ostracised.

The crew did a great job of recreating the atmosphere of the old Irish Laundries. Most of the film is shot in dimly lit conditions, to emphasize the bleak and gloomy feel of the place. We get a brief glimpse of the beautiful Irish countryside when Margaret steps outside the grounds of Magdalene and becomes disorientated as she surveys the outside world. She is startled by the light and beauty of freedom, which is in stark contrast to her confinement in the Laundries. Sound is also manipulated to great effect. I really got the feel of an old, spacious dank church as every sound is clearly heard resonating off the stone walls. I think the echo was supposed to simulate that constant feeling of being alone which pervaded the asylum.

The shocking nature of this film may prompt the viewer who has had no prior knowledge of the Magdalene asylums to question how accurate a representation it is of the actual Laundries. Indeed, I myself found it hard to accept that the asylums could be this bad until I watched Steve Humphries' 1998 documentary "Sex in a Cold Climate", on which this film is based, and found the reality to be just as harrowing as the adaptation. In fact, one of the inmates told Mullen that the reality of the Laundry was much worse than what is depicted in the film.

I really can't recommend this film enough. It was moving, entertaining, and shocking enough to hold my attention until the final credits rolled. Expect to have a seething hatred of Irish nuns instilled in you. 10/10

Catholic Taliban

[job2001 · 7/10 · 16 April 2003]

My expectations of the movie were a bit higher than what I actually watched. The first half of the movie is strong and gripping. When the story of the girls and their situation was told, one word came to mind: (Catholic) Taliban. And I do not mean the bearded backwoodsmen from Pakistan and Afghanistan armed with AK-47s, but devote (male) Catholics from Ireland waving with bibles, amulets and the like. I feel sorry for the girls and women who were subjected to this Catholic tyranny, where as a female one could only be a saint, or a whore. Men on the contrary where allowed to misbehave, and getting away with it. Well, after going to confession to some equally hypocrite priest. However, the strength of the first part, the accusation of the Catholic church, is reversed in the second half of the movie where the story becomes more focused on the individuals. Individuals are needed to tell a story of course, but the story got a bit lost by focusing to much, in my opinion, on the individuals. Had the end changed more in line with the first part, i.e. the accusation, than I would have rated this movie 8/10, whereas now it is 7/10.

However, let this not withhold you from seeing this great movie on a somewhat neglected subject in (Catholic) history.

The Greatest Evil Often Masquerades as the Greatest Good

[protek22 · 10/10 · 26 February 2007]

This is an excellent historical drama about abuses in an Irish Catholic Convent of the Magdalene order. Whistleblowers have been coming out with tales of abuse in Catholic facilities, for well over a century! While largely ignored, such tales have unfortunately been confirmed, in the massive scandals of recent years. This film essentially chronicles the incredible abuse, and sadism, which took place, behind the pious facade of one such Catholic institution. The screenplay here is noteworthy, in how it masterfully brings this true-life historical drama to the screen, building the drama to an unforgettable climax! The film also forcefully illustrates some key truths:

1. Power corrupts, absolute power, corrupts absolutely!

2. The horrendous evil of blind faith, especially when exploited by powerful organizations.

3. How many of those who consider themselves "good" are willing, or unwilling, accomplices of this evil.

4. How easy it is, for the greatest evil, to masquerade as the greatest good.

At the end of the day however, the film reaffirms one of the most important eternal truths of all:

Blind faith enslaves, while critical thinking, sets us free!

A Sadistic and Manipulative Story

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 30 December 2004]

In Ireland in the 60's, three young women, one of them raped by her cousin, the second one a single mother and the third one a flirting and rebel student, are sent by their parents to the Magdalene Sisters Asylum. Although being administrated by nuns, they find exploitation, forced labor, sexual abuse, sadism, all the sort of maleficence in the place.

First of all, I would like to explain that I am not religious, but I did not like this movie. In the cover of the DVD, it is written that this story is based on true facts. In the end of the movie, it is explained that 30,000 Irish girls were sent to places like this asylum called laundry, and the last "laundry" in Ireland was closed in 1996. However, this overrated movie seems to me very exaggerated and manipulative, with many insinuations of greed, sexual abuse and unusual situations, since the place looks like a prison, or a concentration camp, and the nuns look like the character "Ilsa" in a convent. The performances are excellent, but the story is similar to a common movie of women prison, showing all the usual sadism, only this time "in the name of God". My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Em Nome de Deus" ("In the Name of God")

A Disgusting Movie -- That's What Makes it Good

[wondernat · 9/10 · 31 March 2006]

Because I don't rate movies based on my personal convictions, I have to (begrudgingly) admit this is a very good movie.

This was the first and only time I had ever wanted to walk out of a movie because it's directed, acted, and written so painfully well that you can't help but feel yourself drawn into the lives of these women. This movie does absolute justice to the women who had to endure life at the mercy of the Magdalene sisters. It's not a campy story of the human spirit. It's an actual invitation to experience how wretched "fallen women's" lives once were in 1960s Ireland.

To clarify, I wanted to leave the theater because I was so convinced by the picture, I almost felt as though I was IN the convent.

I don't recommend this movie for those sensitive about women's issues (like me), but if you really want to see how "drama" can border on "horror," by all means, rent it.

Rot in Hell Now - Find Sins Later

[Chris_Docker · 7/10 · 9 March 2003]

Provoking outrage from the Vatican, this documentary-based story of the horrors of Roman Catholic laundries where ‘wayward' girls were kept as virtual slaves until the mid-nineties is harrowing. The ‘sins' the three different girls of the story are incarcerated for are, consecutively, being raped, being a single mother, and being attractive to boys. The justification is that men are subject to temptation and that women sin by not saving them from that temptation. One of the most balanced reviews I have read of the film, ironically, was in the Catholic Newspaper, The Tablet. It criticised the film for not suggesting that there would be even a vestige of spirituality in some of the Sisters (which I think would have made it an even more powerful film), but pointed out that since its release not even one single person from the Laundries had come forward to defend them. The film offers no ‘answers' (eg a suggestion that there should have been more government monitoring) but recognises how we ‘forgive' the institutions we grow up with – one of the characters who escapes remains a devout Catholic. The film is not anti-religious – the heroine challenges the head nun at one point by kneeling in prayer. It's main force lies in its shock value backed up by fresh and intense acting – but both as a social statement and as a movie it is admirable rather than earth-shaking.

Makes you want to punch a nun...

[onepotato2 · 5/10 · 16 January 2006]

This grueling movie is painful to watch. But religion is not the culprit, it's just a permission slip for any screwed up, greedy culture to destroy the spirits of the young (lest they have a better life than it's leaders did), while bilking a constituency out of it's money. This from a viewer who finds all religion despicable. No religion ever went broke teaching it's flock how to judge and dismiss a sub-set of the culture via shallow, hateful criteria that can be taught before a child can even learn an ounce of critical thinking. Teaching you to loathe and distrust yourself is another highly-prized device for behavioral control. The utmost goal for insecure authority figures (parents, nuns) is expedient unquestioning obedience, sometimes for no greater reason that so one doesn't lose face.

I am part-Irish. My upbringing was full of the American version of the cruel nonsense shown in this movie. I associate many negative qualities with being Irish. To overcome the junk I was taught has taken about thirty years, but I've done it.

I am sure there are lovely light-hearted, thoughtful Irish folks out there. I don't know them. All my Irish relatives are unbearable, over-aggressive (or passive-aggressive) and vindictive. A friend who also has an Irish parent feels similarly about the Italian half of her family (instead). Go figure. So my distaste is personal.

Currently the world is tearing itself to pieces over which screwed-up magical belief system will hold the reins of secular power. Within 20 years America will be fighting a second civil war.