The Secret Scripture (2016) Reviews

• Beautifully Acted and Directed

  vanmag852016-09-15

  Just caught the Gala premiere at TIFF and was stunned by this film. Vanessa Redgrave and Rooney Mara play older and younger versions of Rose Clear, a woman out of place and out of mind in WWII Ireland. The film is based on the novel of the same name. The acting in the film is beautiful. Director Jim Sheridan called VR a legend in his introduction to the film and the crowd gave her a standing O at the end. Mara does the incredible job of matching her beat for beat. Theo James (who I've only ever seen in the getting- worse-by-the-minute Divergent series) is downright terrifying as the priest who becomes obsessed with Rose. The photography and direction are top notch as well, and take full advantage of Ireland's natural beauty. Only criticism is that the plot may be hard to follow if one isn't familiar with the details of Irish/British history. It also becomes a bit predictable, but by the time revelations are made the tears are already flowing so all is forgiven. Otherwise, the story weaves really nicely through the intricacies of being a single woman in that particular time and place. The material is heavy, and rightly so. It's interesting to note the contrast between the way women are treated in the film and the way the plot is so female driven and the two female leads are clearly so respected and credited by their director. Between this, Una and Lion I wouldn't be surprised to see multiple Oscar nods for Mara.

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• A shocking tale of abuse

  Gordon-112017-10-09

  This film tells the story of a psychiatrist in Ireland, who is sent to a hospital by the Church to evaluate a woman who has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for the past 40 years. "The Secret Scripture" begins very slowly, and for a while I thought it wanted to be "The Notebook". It turned out not to be the case, as the plot unfolded to become a shocking story of power abuse. How the perpetrator was capable of doing such inhuman things was simply beyond me. How he lived with his conscience for 40 years was shocking as well. I managed to guess the ending before the obvious clues were given, but seeing such a satisfactory ending drove me to tears. It was really touching to see the ending, even though justice arrived in an untimely manner.

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• Excellent

  luminary8882017-09-10

  I'm not going to explain the story, that has been done in other reviews. What I do want to say is this The end of this movie brought tears to my eyes, and literally almost broke me, because I have experienced something similar. No, I didn't live in a mental institution all my life, but the pain and heartache is the same, it's excruciating, at the loss of a lover, a family member (including pets), and especially the loss of your child. At the same time the movie brought pain, it also brought healing. Many movies can be confusing at first, and some stay that way until the very end. This was not confusing at all, you just needed to follow along, and know that eventually that everything will be clear and fit into place. An awesome movie, exceptional acting, and the music is beautiful, especially the end title "The Cry Inside," written by Brian Byrne and performed by Kelly Clarkson. It was absolutely gorgeous, a masterpiece. Listening to it, and paying attention to the lyrics, is what finally broke me...I sobbed "The Cry Inside" never goes away. Rose Kennedy explained it as follows ~ "It has been said, 'time heals all wounds,' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."

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• Nearly Unbearable in the Sadness

  lavatch2017-11-24

  Although "The Secret Scripture" was based on the Sebastian Barry novel, the film has the feel of real historical drama set in Ireland in the mid-twentieth century. The expansive story covers the period of 1942-92, and the focus is on the horrific experience of a woman trapped in the religious strife and the sick morality of the age. The film proceeds with flashbacks as Rose McNulty has spent a half century in the barbaric Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital where she was incarcerated primarily through a letter of condemnation written by a priest, who accused her of "nymphomania" in the mid-1940s. By the 1990s, even the clinicians are unsure about how to spell the archaic word nymphomania. But in the 1940s, in the small town of Ballytivnan in County Slligo, young Rose was instructed not to even look a man in the eyes, due to the Victorian morals of the age. The priest who condemned her to hell in the asylum lusted after her, and when she refused his advances, he retaliated with a vengeance. Rose was formally married, but the cruel staff of the asylum did not bother to check the records. While her husband Michael was eventually killed in militant Irish religious schism, Rose delivered his child while leading a life of agony in the asylum. The film develops a melodramatic plot about what happened to the child after Rose made a daring escape and gave birth to a baby boy on the beach. One of the great strengths of the film is the sublime acting of Rooney Mara and Vanessa Redgrave as the young and elderly Rose McNulty. For fifty years, Rose has kept a kind of diary through scribbling notes and drawing pictures in her Bible. Her musings form the "secret" scripture of the film's title. The cinematography was breathtaking with the Irish landscape and the tides that momentarily portend a possible escape for Rose. But even that brief ray of hope is denied her. It is difficult to imaging more cruelty to a human being than the destiny of Rose McNultry. The film raised awareness about just how cruel human beings can be to one another, with the flagrant hypocrisy of morality, religion, and war serving as a smokescreen for the deeper and more troubling aspects of human nature.

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• 'There's a sickness in people that stops them seeing the truth.'

  gradyharp2017-10-17

  Sebastian Barry's brilliant novel SECRET SCRIPTURE has been transformed into an eloquent touching film Johnny Ferguson and Director Jim Sheridan. With moody cinematography by Mikhail Krichman and a musical score by Brian Byrne (with a lot of help from Beethoven) and a perfect cast of actors, this radiantly beautiful film should satisfy a large audience – those who love period pieces, Ireland, sweet romance, ad twists of plot. Roseanne McNulty (Vanessa Redgrave) must vacate the soon-to-be demolished mental institution in Roscommon, Ireland that she's called home for over 50 years. The hospital's psychiatrist, Dr. William Grene (Eric Bana) is called in to assess her condition. He finds himself intrigued by Roseanne's seemingly inscrutable rituals and tics, and her fierce attachment to her Bible, which she has over the decades transformed into a palimpsest of scripture, drawings, and cryptic diary entries. As Grene delves deeper into Roseanne's past, we see her as the young woman Rose (Rooney Mara), whose charisma proves seductive. We learn that she moved to Sligo to work in her aunt's café, fell in love with a dashing fighter pilot Michael McNulty (Jack Reynor), and that a local priest Father Gaunt (Theo James) fell tragically in love with her. The elderly Lady Rose is institutionalized because it was rumored that she murdered her only child at childbirth. Dr Grene and a nurse (Susan Lynch) are supportive of Lady Rose as the story unfolds in the most sensitive manner. There is much to be praised in this film – the manner in which the conflict between the Irish and the British altered personal lives and relationships, the horrors of the early 20th century insane asylums, the struggle Catholics priests at times endure with their celibacy vows, and the beauty of Ireland – but the cast is so fine that they shine with this material. This is a very fine film.

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