The Magdalene Sisters (2003)

Scotland-born triple-threat (director, writer and actor) Peter Mullan's Venice GOLDEN LION champion, his second directorial endeavor, THE MAGDALENE SISTERS is a scathing exposé charts the story of three "fallen" girls' harrowing experiences in the notorious Magdalene Asylum in the 60s Ireland, where Roman Catholic church reigns with draconian measures to suppress women under the name of redeeming their sins.Before its title card duly arrives, the film briefly introduces the sins of our three protagonists, Margaret (Duff), is raped by her cousin during a family wedding, Bernadette (No one), an adolescent orphan deemed as a temptress simply because she flirts with a bunch of hormone- driven lads, and Rose (Duffy), a girl has just borne an out-of-wedlock infant. So burdened with these egregious injustice, they are sent to the asylum by their parents or caretakers, which is in fact a laundry run by nuns and governed by Sister Bridget (McEwan) with high-handed cruelty, in her first appearance Mullan conspicuously implies that God is definitely not her priority.Different personalities of these three girls are soberly singled out in their following dark days: Bernadette, the young rebellious one, learns a hard lesson after a failed escape plan, botched in the eleventh hour by her craven accomplice, a man of course, and becomes more cynical to her fellow inmates hereafter, No one, a headstrong starlet strikes with a piquant weight of strength and endurance; Margaret, is more flexible and sagacious among the gals, bears patiently her sufferings in exchange for a triumphant exit, and Duff nails her heroic facade wonderfully, she is the one, who voluntarily gives up a golden chance of escaping, and pulls through her trails and tribulations with a heartfelt declamation when she can face the God's men and challenge their muted consent of such atrocity; Duffy, uncannily resembles a young Joanne Woodward, her Rose is the meek sheep among the crop, offers a more subdued presence of forbearance and motherly nature.There is another victim here in the spotlight, whose fate is manifestly far less fortunate, to countervail the aforementioned three's ultimate salvation from the pit, Eileen Walsh plays Crispina, a mentally unstable unmarried mother, whose bob hairstyle doesn't match her bucktoothed features, but what happens to her encapsulates the appalling and despicable crimes those clergymen and nuns can ever inflicted on innocent souls under the aegis of the supremacy of God, no religion can ever account for those kinds of transgressions. Walsh courageously transforms a stunning performance out of Eileen's misery, her repeated, plangent bellow of truth is soul- shattering to say the least. Last but definitely not the least, the veteran British thespian, Geraldine McEwan, whose cinematic offerings are not so frequent, but here, she devotes herself wholeheartedly to bring about a daunting impersonation of an evil nun, driven by the monetary income, she is merciless to harness those helpless women while maintaining a holy-than-thou face of authority and patronization, only in the heightened crunch, her instinct tellingly betrays that there is something more important to her than her piousness to God.Overall, this clammy, unadorned survival drama is a gripping nay-sayer of God-awful religious abuse in our recent history, Mullan, most of the time, holds his sway over the thorny subject matter and never descends to levity, only in the scenes of Bernadette and Rose's final attempt to break out of their imprisonment, Mullan slickly transmits a whiff of comedy and triumphalism into their act, which works well to purvey an uplifting coda, yet, in another instance, two nuns obnoxiously tease about the sizes of their prisoners' breasts and their public hair, is just too nauseating to concur with Mullan's relentless opprobrium, nevertheless, this well-orchestrated film again emphatically attests the same old maxim: real life is so much worse than what happens in a movie.

This movie is not the creation of a creative screenwriter. The events actually happened to real girls sent to The Magdalene laundries in Ireland. The film is extremely well done. All of the actors and actresses were perfectly cast for their roles. The directing and cinematography were on point. I do not have a single complaint as a viewer from watching this film. There is some nudity in this movie. It is justified in the shower scene to show what psychological torture the teen girls went through at the hands of so-called nuns. A girl's pubic area is shown and breasts are shown too. This is not done in a pornographic way. These girls are shown to be victims of circumstance. I thought this scene was powerful because it showed how the naked women were helpless and innocent but the nuns in heavy clothes were cruel and devious. The best part of the movie is the escape scene. I would recommend this film.

Throughout the nineteen fifties and sixties, there were hundreds of institutions throughout America, England and Ireland which indicated centers dedicated to the Christian God. A significant number of these places were later revealed to have been of sanctuaries of corruption and pain. This movie selects one called " The Magdalene Sisters. " Although set in Irland, there are hundreds throughout the world which were run the same way and by the same religious orders. The story originates with writer/Director Peter Mullan who was inspired by a true incident which took place in such an establishment. Four Irish girls are sent to the isolated asylum run by the Magdalene sisters. There they undergo such brutal treatment, ridicule and torturous punishment as a means to curb their unsocial behavior, such as 'looking too pretty.' There is Margaret (Anne Duff) Crispina (Eileen Walsh) Rose (Dorothy Duffy) and Bernaddette (Nora-Jane Noon). All the young girls are constantly mistreated like hapless slaves as they are systematically dehumanized, forced to wash, clean, scrub floors, clothes and endure physical, mental and sexual anguish. Each day, they accept their suffering and silent plight, dreaming of eventual escape. Watching this movie is difficult, but having been exposed to the same brutality, believable in every respect. ****

What struck me about this movie, aside from its moving portrayal of these women and the brutality and humiliation they had to endure, was that it didn't contain a single sympathetic portrayal of the male gender. I wonder if the writer was a misandrist. The closest thing to a decent male character was Margaret's brother, who inquired where she was being taken at the beginning, and rescued her at the end (for which he was unfairly lambasted by her for taking too long to grow up). A close second was the fellow who almost helped Bernadette escape (despite his very crude behavior when first introduced).In terms of being anti-Catholic, it certainly wasn't purely so, as I could discern areas where they tried to show a few of the nuns as having some concern for their charges (in between beatings and humiliations).When I learned that one of the women in the documentary commented that things were much worse than the film portrayed, it made me wonder whether that was simply her perception, or whether it was accurate. I find it hard to believe that all those nuns had been turned into the moral equivalent of Nazi prison guards. What was believable was that the women who endured that treatment were unable afterwards to form harmonious marriages, and some avoided marriage altogether, to avoid letting anyone ever again have that kind of power over them.Anyway, I enjoyed watching first the hour-long documentary, and the next night the film itself. If you're prone to bouts of depression, though, hide the razor blades, and think how far we've advanced since those dark times, not so very long ago.