Not much to say here so I will dispatch this review quickly. Set in 1967 near Dublin, it tells the story of a group of Irish women who go to Lourdes with their local priest in search of a miracle or two.
Of course, it is arguable that they don’t get a “miracle” but the journey acts as a cathartic means of releasing decades of pent up anger and sorrow.
The story, the screenplay and the direction by Thaddeus O’Sullivan are all quite low-key and predictable. Shot entirely in Ireland, Lourdes is depicted only by imposed scenic clips of the river.
What saves this film from mediocrity is the excellent cast. Maggie Smith at 88 is Lily a woman long mourning her drowned son,
Kathy Bates is her rather bitter friend who is bringing up a tribe of kids and grandchildren and Stephen Rea is the latter’s useless chauvinistic husband (somewhat underused).
Finally, among the better knowns is Laura Linney as Chrissie who has returned after 40 years from the States. Her mother has just died and she has come home to do some reckoning with the other women.
There is another plot line about a younger woman who has a child who doesn’t speak and there is an early scene with her and Maggie Smith singing doo-wop to Kathy Bates version of a Shangri Las hit. That is the most fun perhaps in this rather heavy film which is eminently predictable. The cast do manage to deliver the lines with the skill they are famed for and I found Linney a presence in the central role. Smith is a wry performer as always and Bates shows her versatility in a rather contradictory role. Her accent slides around a bit.
All somewhat going down a road we’ve been down before but in a much more interesting way.
2 stars
passionfilm 