Small Things like These (2024)

Small Things like These moves so quietly that a few critics wondered where the tension went, and for a while you might too. It’s December 1985 in New Ross, Ireland. Cillian Murphy plays Bill Furlong, a coal merchant with a wife, Eileen, and five daughters, whose deliveries take him to the local convent. On one stop he sees a teenage girl taken inside against her will. On another, girls scrubbing floors and doing laundry, and one begs him for help. Then he finds a girl named Sarah shut in the coal shed, out in the cold. Sister Mary, played by Emily Watson, answers with a Christmas card, some cash and a quiet hint that his daughters’ school places could be at risk. Everyone, Eileen included, tells Bill to keep his head down. Murphy barely raises his voice and carries every scene, and Watson is unsettling in just a few. It holds a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 7.9 because one man’s small decision ends up feeling enormous. $114.71 says you read Claire Keegan’s novella before the month is out.

What works: Cillian Murphy gives a hushed, aching performance, and Emily Watson makes Sister Mary frightening without ever raising her voice.

What doesn’t: The restraint tips into stillness, the pace drifts in the back half, and some viewers will find the lack of dramatic tension wearing.

Who it’s for: Viewers who want a quiet, serious drama about conscience, and readers of Claire Keegan’s novella.