A historical drama film described as “profound” and “thrilling” is heading to Netflix this month. Small Things Like These, starring Peaky Blinders icon Cillian Murphy, hits the streaming giant on 28 April.
Directed by Tim Mielants and adapted from the 2021 novel by Claire Keegan, the harrowing film tells the stories of the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, institutions that confined approximately 30,000 “fallen women” – ordinarily unmarried mothers, troubled teenagers, or victims of abuse – and forced them into unpaid labour.
28 Days Later’s Murphy appears in the film as Bill Furlong, a coal merchant who uncovers abuse at a local convent and risks his family’s safety to aid the women trapped there.
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The cast is rounded out by Eileen Walsh, Michelle Fairley, Emily Watson, Clare Dunne, and Helen Behan.
Released in 2024, Small Things Like These premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival ahead of its theatrical run, receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and fans alike.
The film currently holds a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critics’ consensus reading: “Cillian Murphy’s outstanding acting anchors Small Things Like These, elevating an occasionally enervating historical drama.”
In their review, Empire wrote: “A deliberate film that uses small moments to examine one of the great questions of our time: how good people let bad things happen, and how we might push back against the dark.”
Financial Times said: “Small Things Like These proceeds instead with graceful storytelling and gossamer restraint — not a thriller, but thrilling.”
Lionsgate
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Many heaped praise on Murphy, with RogerEbert.com writing: “[Murphy’s] is a marvel of a performance, extremely expressive and yet deeply inward-looking.”
Echoing the same sentiments, Time Out said: “It’s a profound performance by Murphy – perhaps even more so in fewer words than Oppenheimer – as Bill’s anger burns with tragic urgency.”
The Hollywood Reporter added: “It’s subtle but resonant, intimate but emotionally expansive, and at every step crisply unsentimental.”
Meanwhile, iNews summarised: “A nod to a painful part of Irish history, this is a beautiful story of courage in the face of complicity.”
Small Things Like These comes to Netflix on 28 April.
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Rebecca is a freelance journalist who specializes in TV and film. After beginning her career as a digital entertainment journalist for the Express & Star and Shropshire Star, she embarked on a freelance career in 2021 contributing to the likes of Metro UK, The Sun, WhatCulture, Screen Rant, FilmHounds Magazine and more.
Her particular field of interest is horror cinema and she has written for genre publications such as Ghouls Magazine and Moving Pictures Film Club.
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