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January 11, 2006
Magdalene Sisters
It is really horrifying to know that Magdalene Laundries continued to operate until 1996, just ten years ago. Young women and girls in Ireland were sent to those prisons for the crime of being female: either because they were raped, had a child out of wedlock, flirted with a guy, or simply looked too pretty. They were known as penitents and had to pray and work for no pay in a laundry six days a week, 52 weeks a year.
From that uplifting history, a film was created to follow the lives of three women forced into a Magdalene Laundry. The actors were compelling, the story was Important and real yet unbelievable, but I'm not sure if it completely succeeded as a film. I suppose the truth is that years of torture really are ended without a particularly spectular escape, and that it really angered me so many women were destroyed by their community's "faith." It was a hard film to watch, since it showed every terrible aspect of the torturous asylum.
I'm not sure what I expected from the movie. I thought more would happen, but given the restrictions of the prison - "penitents" weren't supposed to talk and worked from sun up to sun down - it would be difficult to explore the character's feelings more or have more dialogue than was included. So, it was a good film and definitely worth seeing. It's not one of my favorite films, but I'd give it four out of five stars. My problem wasn't that the internal story of the nuns was given short shrift, but that I longed to know more about the women who were locked up. I did find out a bit more by watching the documentary included on the dvd. The whole package is definitely worth the three hours it takes to watch it. I only wish special features on dvd's came with time information. (The doc is an hour, the movie is two hours.)
I realize now that I liked the film more than I originally thought after reading reviews and realizing that the scenes had a powerful impact on me, even though I felt like I'd experienced them before. That's probably because of the US media coverage of serial rapist priests a few years back; nevertheless I couldn't imagine living in a country where these laundries were accepted and existed. My horror really isn't at the Catholic church - I know that institutional religion brings both joy and pain; rather, it is at the continued second-class status of women throughout the world.
More info:
Rotten Tomatoes entry
Ebert's review
Ty Burr's review from the Boston Globe
Posted by cj at January 11, 2006 07:35 AM
Comments
I remember that film. I liked it, although it did not compel me to seek out more information about the subject matter, as it did you. But other films have done that, and I always mark that as one of the signs that a film was well done. Good Night and Good Luck, Capote, and The Aviator were all films last year that sent me scurrying to the internet shortly after coming home from the theater.
On the other hand, The Longest Yard and Meet The Fokkers sent me scurrying to the liquor store.
Posted by: Mr. Fabulous at January 13, 2006 02:27 AM