The Quiet Girl

An Cailín Ciúin; drama, Ireland, 2022; D: Colm Bairéad, S: Catherine Clinch, Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett, Michael Patric

Cait (10) is a secluded, misunderstood girl who often runs away from her house. She has three sisters, all of whom are neglected by their parents who don't care that much for them. Since her mother is pregnant again, she sends Cait to spend the summer at her relatives, the middle-aged Eibhlin and Sean. The childless couple welcomes Cait, and she helps them at their cattle farm by cleaning the stable. At a funeral, a woman tells Cait that Eibhlin and Sean had a son who drowned in a slurry pit by chasing a dog. As the school is about to start, Eibhlin and Sean return Cait back to her home, where her mother gave birth to a son. As Eibhlin and Sean leave in a car, Cait catches up with them, and calls Sean "dad".

Colm Bairead's feature length debut film is, as the title already hints at, a quiet, meditative, introverted and gentle little drama about growing up, filmed in Irish language. "The Quiet Girl" is well meant and honest, but still too slow, suffering from too much 'empty walk' and conventional storytelling which does not engage on some higher level. The opening act neatly establishes how the heroine Cait (very good Catherine Clinch) feels neglected by her distant parents: when she is brought to stay over at her relatives, her father is so backward that he smokes in the kitchen during the meal, extinguishing his cigarette on the plate, and then leaves the farm in his car—with Caith's suitcase still inside the trunk! Relative Eibhlin makes Caith feel not only welcomed, but also gives her a feeling of worth and importance, and even says to her: "If there are secrets in a house, there is shame in that house. We don't have any shame here". Not much is going on, though, as the storyline is rather routine and stale. The story contemplates about some unfairness in life—Caith's parents have four children, but don't care about them, while Eibhlin and Sean don't have children and truly appreciate Caith, but cannot keep her—and conjures up emotional, realistic characters. One just wishes all of this was more creative and better written.

Grade:++