An Accusation Has a Mother Question Her Son

Paul Mescal and Emily Watson in
"God's Creatures"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

The opening shots of directors’ Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer’s psychological drama, “God’s Creatures,” shows an Irish fishing village at the cusp of dusk.  We hear the oceanic waves and the wind as the town gets ready to begin a new day.  However, as the sun comes up and we’re introduced further into the community, we’ll see a village that’s about to be broken.

The story follows Aileen O’Hara (Emily Watson), whose son, Brian (Paul Mescal), returns from Australia.  For a while, she’s overjoyed.  Later on, when he has an allegation of assault placed against him by a local girl, Sarah Murphy (Aisling Franciosi), Aileen covers for him, thinking she knows her son and that he didn’t commit the crime.  But, as time goes, she’ll begin to think she’s made a mistake.

Watson delivers a quiet, yet searing performance as a mother who wants to believe her son is good, but must face the overwhelming evidence that continues to stack up against him.  She shows the grief of someone who begins to think that the son who went away isn’t the son who has come back.  Although you don’t see the inciting incident, the movie makes it obvious that Brian is guilty early on, so this movie isn’t all about Aileen trying to defend her son, but defending him for a short while until she begins to face the fact that there’s a much darker and dangerous side to him.  Watson’s able to convey plenty of emotion in the scenes where she doesn’t have any dialogue as much as she does in the scenes where she speaks, showing an ability to display her character’s tortured self in different ways as she goes from experiencing a happy return of her son to having it turn into an unbearable realization of the kind of person he really is.

Pascal is very unsettling as a character who doesn’t feel remorse for what he’s done, but goes about his life as if nothing’s happened.  He gives his character a calmness throughout the film, seeming like Brian is confident in being able to get away with what he’s done, offering another layer of danger to his character as we worry if he’ll commit a similar offense as he did against Sarah.

Franciosi provides a heartbreaking performance as a young woman who experiences betrayal from Aileen, a coworker and friend of hers who’s hesitant to believe Sarah’s side of the story.  She displays the psychological toll over what has happened to her, yet still exhibits little by little that she intends to stand up for herself, no matter who might see her as a liar.

Toni O’Rourke, who plays Aileen’s daughter, Erin, makes the most out of her scenes as her character starts to question her mother’s ethics and distance herself from her.  She becomes part of the losses that Aileen experiences as her decision to cover for Brian starts to backfire, and just like Aileen begins to wonder if she knows her son, Erin shows the pain of feeling like she doesn’t know her mother.

The screenplay by Shane Crowley makes it known early on that Brian is guilty, so the tense nature of the film doesn’t come from us trying to find out if he’s innocent or guilty, but knowing that he’s guilty and wondering when and how Aileen is going to face this harsh reality.  This presents one of several angles of the story exploring the theme of self-preservation as the characters try to survive in their own way; and, in Aileen’s case, it’s her wanting to believe that her son is the harmless person that she once believed he was.

The accusation doesn’t happen until about a third of the way through the film.  Before then, we’re providing with the opportunity to get to know the characters, their day-to-day lives, and the setting, so that by the time this turning point occurs, we’re invested in everything that the narrative has presented to us and understand the greater sense of the weight that’s being pressed upon this community.

The cinematography by Chayse Irvin creates several long takes as we watch characters interact, absorbing you in everything that they say and giving you a view into how members of this community talk with each other.  However, some of the most-effective long takes are the ones where there isn’t any dialogue, where we instead watch a character’s emotions play out in their facial expressions, such as a scene where Aileen paces around her kitchen in a state of confusion and nervousness as she tries to understand what’s happening in her life.

Davis and Holmer do accomplished work when inviting us into Aileen’s village and maintain the disquieting atmosphere.  With ominous music from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, terrific sound design, tight closeups, and some confined settings, Davis and Holmer give us heavy doses of unease as we’re taken through an unfamiliar community and come to know its inhabitants.  Through the way that they present everyone and everything within the village, we feel as though we come out with a better understanding of what this community holds within its borders.

A parent will do anything for their children, but with “God’s Creatures,” you’ll that this instinct may only go so far.

Grade: A