Movie Review: THE QUIET GIRL (AN CAILÍN CIÚN)

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: February 24th, 2023 / 01:21 AM

THE QUIET GIRL(AN CAILÍN CIÚN) movie poster | ©2023 Neon

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett, Catherine Clinch, Michael Patric, Kate Nic Chonaonaigh, Joan Sheehy
Writer: Colm Bairéad, based on the story “Foster” by Claire Keegan
Director: Colm Bairéad
Distributor: Neon
Release Date: February 24, 2023

THE QUIET GIRL, Oscar-nominated this year as Best International (Foreign Language) Feature, is a quiet film. It takes the time to find wonder in trees reflected in a dipper full of well water, or a moon bright enough to light the way to a secluded beach.

This quiet does not mean the film feels slow, however. It is, like its main character, watchful and curious.

We’re in rural Ireland, where Irish Gaelic is still spoken. The year is not given within the film; production notes say THE QUIET GIRL takes place in 1981. Young Cáit (Catherine Clinch) lives is a crowded house on a rundown dairy farm with her parents Dan and Maire (Michael Patric and Kate Nic Chonaonaigh), her four siblings (one of these a toddler), and Maire pregnant with another baby. Dan is a drinker and a gambler, and Maire is understandably exhausted.

When we first see Cáit, she is laying under foliage in a field, so motionless as to appear dead. But she stirs when one of her sisters calls her name.

We soon learn that Cáit is viewed as odd by her sisters and schoolmates. She has a tendency to wander off, and she wets the bed. In a household where the adults don’t have time to give any of their children even regular attention, a little girl with any kind of special needs is seen as a problem.

So Cáit is sent to live with Maire’s older cousin Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley) and Eibhlín’s husband Séan (Andrew Bennett) for the summer, until Maire gives birth. Séan and Eibhlín also have a dairy farm, but theirs is relatively well-run, and their house is spacious.

Eibhlín immediately is warm and welcoming. Séan is more reserved, but as Cáit is quite shy, this suits her. Bit by bit, everyone starts to become more comfortable.

Writer/director Colm Bairéad, adapting Claire Keegan’s story “Foster,” has a lot to say about bonding and nurturing. He does not, however, say any of it in words. The main characters say only as much as they need to at any given time, expressing themselves through their actions and what they choose to observe. In fact, THE QUIET GIRL seems suspicious of too much verbiage. Not only does Séan tell Cáit that she shouldn’t feel pressure to talk when she doesn’t want to, the one chatty person we meet is full of malice.

There is a lot of simple beauty in THE QUIET GIRL, as well as honest emotion. We see Cáit begin to thrive with attention and goodwill, and we see her effect on the older couple as well. The film trusts us to comprehend this without any lectures.

THE QUIET GIRL ends on a note of realistic ambiguity. It is a measure of the film’s success that we truly want to know what happens next, but it feels in keeping with what has come before that we are left to wonder.

In Irish Gaelic and English, with English subtitles.

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Movie Review: THE QUIET GIRL (AN CAILÍN CIÚN)

A quiet but impactful drama

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