The Magdalene Sisters (2003)

Very well executed

Truly the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater

So much average

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

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.

Going into this film I was expecting a pretty bland drama that I could plop along to. To my surprise, The Magdalene Sisters proves to be much better than your standard redemption drama. Whether it is the compelling characters or the story, The Magdalene Sisters managed to have me gripped to the chair and truly engage in the story (something I have not done in many years).Everyone in this film has a distinct character; love them or hate them. The true hell of these asylums is portrayed so well that by the end of the film you just pray that people will never do anyone such injustice again. One of the great films of the 21st century.

Omg what film! Actors are amazing! This film upset me a bit to see how women were treated years ago. If this still happened today none of us would lead the life's that we do. Me personally have no religion even though i come from an Irish family, i cant believe that if there were a god why do the nuns believe that this is how they should be treated? Makes you realise how lucky we all are today to be able to live our life's the way we want. Cant believe i have only just discovered this film, i think it was bloody fantastic!! If anyone knows of any similar films i would be very grateful to hear from you. 10/10 isn't enough for this film.

The Magdalene Asylums were a group of sanctuaries set up in the 19th century to rehabilitate prostitutes, promiscuous young girls and orphans. Those set up in Ireland were run by Irish nuns and functioned as commercial laundries. The inmates washed clothes and the church got paid. The inmates themselves were subjected to intense psychological pressure, the "washing of laundry" becoming a form of spiritual penance (ie, wash these clothes and your sins shall be washed away).Despite their supposedly noble intentions, the Asylums functioned more like giant sweat shops than places of genuine rehabilitation. Like Nazi Concentration Camps, "unworthy people" were collected, institutionalised and made to work, the inmates the perfect workforce, providing huge amounts of profits and requiring no personal salary. Those who didn't comply were beaten, tortured, molested and stripped of their clothes.And yet the girls tolerated this treatment. They were coerced into seeing themselves as being "spiritually unclean", guilted into obediently tending to their duties in the hope that they may one day better themselves. Of course this very cycle of exploitation demonstrates how most religions work. Religion reduces man to a fallen organism and then constructs superficial rituals which he must dutifully perform in order to redeem himself in the eyes of God. In the Magdalene Asylums, religious exploitation is married to capitalist interests, guilt prostituted solely for commercial gains.Like "Schindler's List", the camp movie it most resembles, the film fails to examine why and how such blatantly cruel institutions were tolerated. How could this have happened? Were the nuns really cruel monsters? How could they have imagined themselves to be serving God whilst committing such blatantly unchristian acts? How could the surrounding populace collaborate in these barbaric practises? How could the state have permitted adult women to be held under lock and key without process of law? But the film is no more illuminating than Spielberg's portrayal of the Holocaust. The film ignores the fact that the ruling nuns were themselves once inmates. That they themselves were the victims of rape and sexual abuse. The film ignores the famine crisis that drove families to send their girls here. The film ignores the poverty of the populace and fails to examine the factors which led to the church drifting down such a dark path. Instead, the film is content to simply portray the asylums as factories of pain.So like "Schindler's List" there's an exploitative quality here, the film bludgeoning you with the sheer sensationalism of its material. Still, this is a tremendously well acted picture and almost consistently riveting. And while Spielberg's "nuns" are a group of infantilized Jews, director Peter Mullan populates "The Magdalene Sisters" with fully realised characters. 8/10 - Worth two viewings. Makes a good companion piece to Don Siegel's "The Beguiled" and Frederick Wiseman's "Titicut Follies".