If you want to get on in life, there’s things you have to ignore so you can keep on.
Overview
In 1985, while working as a coal merchant to support his family, Bill Furlong discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent and uncovers truths of his own; forcing him to confront his past and the complicit silence of a small Irish town controlled by the Catholic Church.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.8/10
IMDb: 6.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.50/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Metacritic: 82
TMDB: 6.7/10
Director
Tim Mielants
Production
Artists Equity, Big Things Films, Wilder Content, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland
Cast
Cillian Murphy, Emily Watson, Michelle Fairley, Eileen Walsh, Zara Devlin, Clare Dunne, Helen Behan, Ella Cannon, Patrick Ryan, Peter Claffey, Ian O'Reilly, Sarah Morris, Cillian O'Gairbhi, Tadhg Moloney, Liadán Dunlea, Giulia Doherty, Rachel Lynch, Aoife Gaffney, Faye Brazil, Agnes O'Casey
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A bleak, restrained moral drama with strong atmosphere and a quietly devastating central performance. It’s less about plot twists than about conscience, complicity, and the cost of doing the right thing in a community built on silence.
Best for
Viewers who like subdued, character-driven dramas
Fans of Irish social history and institutional critique
Audiences drawn to wintery, melancholy atmosphere
People who appreciate restrained performances over melodrama
Skip if
You want a fast-moving thriller or courtroom-style confrontation
You prefer emotionally uplifting or cathartic storytelling
You’re looking for a broad ensemble drama with multiple viewpoints
You dislike slow, minimalist films with a heavy, oppressive mood
Overview
Small Things Like These is a hushed but forceful drama that turns everyday labor and small acts of conscience into something morally enormous. Tim Mielants keeps the film spare and wintry, letting the coldness of the setting and the weight of unspoken knowledge do much of the work. The result is a film that feels less like a conventional expose and more like a moral pressure chamber.
Worth noting
Cillian Murphy gives the story its center with a performance built on restraint, fatigue, and barely contained dread. The film is strongest when it stays close to his interior conflict: a man trying to remain decent in a town where decency requires risk. The atmosphere is mournful and controlled, and that control gives the revelations real force.
Bottom line
This is not a film for viewers who want tidy outrage or big dramatic speeches. Its power comes from accumulation, from the sense that complicity is ordinary and therefore harder to confront. If you respond to quiet, serious dramas about conscience, silence, and institutional harm, it lands hard.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Elle (4★) · 4918 likes
Congratulations to the Catholic Church for being the only force within Ireland as evil as the British Empire
belle (5★) · 3882 likes
cillian playing a girl dad on screen has changed me in monumental ways that i cannot explain
Jay (3.5★) · 2972 likes
cillian murphy weaponising the peaky blinders crowd so an indie film about abusive catholic nuns is a box office hit