Faith and science clash in the rural midlands of Ireland in 1862. English nurse “Lib” Wright (Florence Pugh), steadfast veteran of the Crimean war, has been brought from London, hired to observe the eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell (Kíla Lord Cassidy), who despite not eating remains fit and healthy. Is the girl faking, being surreptitiously fed, or is she as many claim, a miracle?
Pugh is commanding, tough, vulnerable, complicit in teasing a compelling performance from the young Cassidy. Director Sebastián Lelio leans into the stifled emotions, without offering judgment, letting the uncomfortable truths of the story live, emerge from events. His choice to bookend the story in the sets from the film, is unique and some might say superfluous? I read it as highlighting our own willingness to believe a fiction. That or a nod to the book the story is based on by Emma Donoghue. Neither would surprise me.
An interesting film that makes you believe in the story.
Darrin // Nightingale 