God’s Creatures
Emily Watson and Paul Mescal illuminate a grim psychological drama from Ireland.
Paul Mescal
Central to this film and by far its most appealing feature is the performance of its leading actress, Emily Watson. She appears in the role of Aileen O'Hara whose home is a fishing village in Ireland (the film was shot in County Donegal and is admirably photographed in wide screen by Chayse Irvin). Initially God’s Creatures offers a portrait of a small community with particular emphasis on Aileen and her family. She lives with her husband Con (Declan Conlon), her daughter Erin (Toni O’Rourke) who is a single mother with a baby and with her aged father Paddy (Lalor Roddy) who is no longer capable of running their oyster farm. This may be a place where a drowning incident is far from unknown but all the scenes shown be they in the house, in the nearby factory where Aileen works, on the quay or in the local pub smack of everyday life. Indeed, the only event out of the ordinary is the sudden reappearance after an absence of seven years of Aileen’s son Brian (Paul Mescal) who is now in his thirties. He had gone to Australia and had chosen to be out of touch, but it is evident that it is he rather than Erin who had been Aileen’s pride and joy and having him back means everything to her. It is also the case that Brian is able to give welcome assistance with the oyster beds and can renew old acquaintances, not least Sarah Murphy (Aisling Franciosi) with whom he had been close before his departure.
God’s Creatures has been made by two American co-directors Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer who feel quite at ease in this setting but the screenplay, an original by Shane Crowley, poses a challenge. Any detailed description of what God’s Creatures is about would go beyond its focus on the mother/son relationship to indicate something decidedly dramatic but Crowley’s story is one in which the film is halfway through before these key events occur. For that reason, it is best for a reviewer not to disclose them, but the tale is so structured that this becomes a film of two halves. That might not have been a problem but for the fact that Davis and Holmer have opted to feature a music score by Danny Bensi and Sander Jurriaans which cuts across what is shown on screen. Throughout the first half of the film we may be looking at everyday life but the score repeatedly comes up with drum strokes, throbbing discordant chords and drone-like sounds. All of these hint at menace and imply that drama is ahead. The filmmakers might want to suggest that this music foreshadows what is said much later on when Erin, caught up in what has erupted, declares that nothing has changed and in truth everything is the same as it always was. But in actuality the score leads us to anticipate drama so forcefully that it leaves us amazed that we have to wait fifty minutes before it arrives – and at the same time it prevents us from appreciating the atmospheric recreation of daily life for its own sake.
That may be the major flaw in God’s Creatures but it does not stand alone. Several of the subsidiary characters could have been rounded out to advantage and that's particularly so in the case of Aileen’s husband. Her intense bonding with Brian may in itself imply that her relationship with Con means less than it should, but making his role so insignificant rules out any discussion between the couple which could have shed a valuable light on the extent to which Aileen is in self-denial when events get out of control. The film ends with an effective shot in a car travelling away from the village but it is preceded by a big speech which, coming over as a monologue, feels closer to stage dialogue than to the realism of the words elsewhere so that too counts as a weakness in the writing.
Despite these misjudgments, God’s Creatures will attract attention and not undeservedly. There are good contributions from Aisling Franciosi, Toni O'Rourke and Marion O'Dwyer and, since this film reaches us following both Aftersun and the latest London stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, the presence of the justly acclaimed Paul Mescal will arouse interest in itself. Even so, it is Emily Watson who shines here: as Aileen she is totally embedded in her role and on screen she lives as her. This fine actress has done nothing better.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Emily Watson, Paul Mescal, Aisling Franciosi, Toni O’Rourke, Declan Conlon, Lalor Roddy, Marion O’Dwyer, Brendan McCormack, Enda Oates, Isabelle Connolly, Andrew Bennett, Barry Barnes, John Burke.
Dir Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer, Pro Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Screenplay Shane Crowley from a story by him and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Ph Chayse Irvin, Pro Des Inbal Weinberg, Ed Jeanne Applegate and Julia Bloch, Music Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, Costumes Joan Bergin and Lara Campbell.
Nine Daughters/A24/BBC Film/Screen Ireland/WRAP Fund-British Film Institute.
100 mins. Ireland/UK/USA. 2022. US Rel: 30 September 2022. UK Rel: 31 March 2023. Cert. 15.
