While The Quiet Girl is beautifully crafted and performed, it doesn't necessarily have enough story to fill out its rather short runtime. Director Bairéad does a wonderful job of filling in some of this time with moments drawing connections between his characters, but the film, even though rather short, feels long and slow. Still it is a powerful story about how family isn't about biology but about connection and the final scene is an emotional powerhouse.
The Quiet Girl's cast is terrific, especially young Clinch as the title character. The script's (no pun intended) quiet script, which doesn't give the characters big scenes to dramatize their journeys, instead allows small moments of connection which the cast uses to draw us into their experiences and their growing affections. All of this happens in a beautiful pastoral setting which is shot warmly creating a calm sense of comfort which echos the characters' growing bonds. It is all truly lovely in the way it is executed.
But very little happens for the film's runtime of barely over an hour and a half. Not all films need to be 90 minutes to be powerful and often I felt that the film was milking moments a little too much. Perhaps the sweetness of it made me forgive it a bit, but the story just doesn't sustain its length. We need to embrace films being as long or as short as they need to be to tell their story well. Audiences have a weird and unhealthy fascinations with films being too long and too short and the magic window of 90-120 minutes which doesn't fit most stories, is imposed inappropriately on most films. The Quiet Girl could have worked as a 1 hour film quite beautifully.
Still, The Quiet Girl is a lovely watch and if you don't mind the way it draws out its tale it is quite beautiful, both visually and the way it explores how true family is made.
An Cailín Ciúin/The Quiet Girl
Starring: Catherine Clinch, Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett
Writer/Director: Colm Bairéad
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