The Quiet Girl (2022)
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The Quiet Girl Movie Review
The Quiet Girl is a 2022 Irish coming-of-age drama film directed by Colm Bairead and starring Catherine Clinch in the main role. This is a simple, but very sweet and effective tale.
A nine-year-old girl from a dysfunctional family goes to live with distant relatives for the summer. Living with a middle-aged farm couple, she discovers a new way of living. This is one of those movies that are simple to a fault, but for the most part it is so well made and so charming that it ended up fulfilling on its premise of endearing the audience.
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Cait is this very shy, socially awkward girl who in many respects is similar to what I was like during my childhood, so this movie was quite relatable to me in that respect. What the movie got quite right is how it feels being shy and how you become extra observant of the people and surroundings around you. The best moments in this story focused on just that – Cait observing others and learning about life in the process.
What the film could have developed better are the supporting characters. The new motherly figure is wonderful and their shared moments were truly endearing. My issue lies with her parents, who seemed overly typically portrayed as inattentive and cold. The scenes in the countryside were thus far better and more impactful than those in the city.
The Quiet Girl is quite cinematic as the filmmakers found the way to bring a lot of strong imagery out of its simple setting. This farm is gorgeously depicted in meticulous detail and those slice-of-life elements really worked and made the movie immensely charming.
My issue is that the pacing can be quite slow, especially in the film’s middle stretches, and a more eventful narrative during those scenes would have elevated the story. The directing from Colm Bairead is superb for a first-time director and the cinematography is excellent. The highlight here is the movie being spoken in the Gaelic language, which made it quite authentic. This led to the film being sent to the Academy and being shortlisted eventually.
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The Quiet Girl is an Irish coming-of-age drama that is simple to a fault, but it is nonetheless very charming in its slice-of-life storytelling and a great use of its countryside setting. The character development could have been better, but the movie’s empathetic approach worked in making you care for the protagonist while the ending was also quite moving.
My Rating – 4
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