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Herself Movie Review

Herself is a 2020 drama film directed by Phyllida Lloyd and starring Clare Dunne. It’s somewhat melodramatic, but overall it’s a very moving, superbly acted drama.

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“I understand Molly has witnessed something she shouldn’t,

but I cannot condone parental alienation“

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After the housing system refuses to give her a new home, Sandra decides to build her own with the help of a friendly community and a handful of new friends. With this new purpose, Sandra rediscovers herself, until her abusive ex-husband sues her for custody of the children. We have seen films like this before, not just about family abuse, but also about communities helping each other out.

The reason why the movie trumps this familiar premise lies in its mostly nuanced, believable and very emotional execution. You care what happens to Sandra because the film is so tenderly directed by Phyllida Lloyd and so careful in depicting trauma that it really is her finest directorial effort so far by a mile. This is her first truly good film.

Conleth Hill is wonderful as the great Aido. He is such a great man that it was beautiful seeing good people existing opposite terrible ones. The film is thus a very grounded movie in that it showcases both the worst and the best in humanity in one single package as the movie is both happy at times and devastating at others. That tonal diversity was deftly handled.

Clare Dunne is amazing. This is one of the best, most underrated female performances of the year. She deserves more praise when it comes to the awards as her work here is tremendous. This is a little known actress with a theater background and she deserves a bigger film career now as here she is believable, very nuanced and especially great at emoting. Some of her big scenes are very moving, especially the courtroom sequence.

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Herself definitely took some overly melodramatic turns near the end. That burning the house sequence was too much for me personally, but the ending itself was wonderful. The movie was predictable in some scenes, but its highlight is that it handled abuse delicately without showing it on screen too much. The result was both poignant and subtle filmmaking that really appealed to me, though the runtime felt a bit short for this subject matter.