---
title: "Small Things Like These"
year: 2024
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/small-things-like-these"
fi1m_id: "small-things-like-these"
imdb_id: "tt27196021"
tmdb_id: 1102493
wikidata_id: "Q117255424"
fi1m_score: 79
critics_score: 81
critics_reviews: 18
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:57.718920+00:00"
region: "RO"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Small Things Like These (2024)

Directed by Tim Mielants · 1h 39m · Drama

## Identity

Small Things Like These

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/small-things-like-these
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** small-things-like-these
- **IMDb ID:** tt27196021
- **TMDB ID:** 1102493
- **Wikidata ID:** Q117255424
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27196021/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1102493, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117255424

**Fi1m score: 79** · Critics 81 from 18 reviews

*In a sentence:* The most frightening thing in Ireland is a nun offering you a cup of tea

> Cillian Murphy barely speaks in Tim Mielants’s adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novella, and he does not need to. The film around him is cold, careful and well built, though it explains his past more often than Keegan did, or than we needed.

## Synopsis

Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) sells coal and timber in a small Irish town in the 1980s. He has a wife, Eileen (Eileen Walsh), a houseful of daughters, a lorry and a round that takes him to every door in the place, including the convent above the town, where the nuns run a laundry and take in girls nobody talks about. On one delivery he watches a mother drag her daughter through the convent gate. He drives home, washes the coal off his hands at the sink and says nothing. Tim Mielants directs from Enda Walsh’s adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novella, with Emily Watson as Sister Mary and Michelle Fairley as Mrs Wilson, the woman who employed Bill’s mother when he was a boy.

## Review

Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) sells coal. He gets up in the dark, loads the lorry, drives it round a small Irish town in the 1980s, and comes home to scrub the black out of his hands while his wife Eileen (Eileen Walsh) and their daughters get on with the evening. One of his customers is the convent above the town. The nuns there run a laundry, and the girls who work in it are not discussed. Tim Mielants’s film, written by Enda Walsh from Claire Keegan’s novella, is about what happens when a man who has spent his life not discussing them finds he cannot keep it up.

Murphy carries it almost without dialogue. He plays Bill as a man who has learned to be small: cap down, shoulders in, eyes on the coal. In the first act he pulls up at the convent gate as a mother drags her screaming daughter through it, and the camera stays on Murphy in the cab, not moving and not looking away either. We were shaken by that scene, and what shook us was not the girl but the fact that Bill’s hands stayed on the wheel. The town has decided, and you can only see the decision in what nobody does.

Frank van den Eeden photographs all of it in brown and grey, in the sort of winter light that gives up by four in the afternoon. Interiors are lit by fires and single bulbs, so faces come out of the dark and go back into it. Paki Smith’s production design gives the Furlongs a kitchen too small for the people in it, and gives the convent a parlour with polished wood, good china and nothing out of place, which is the more frightening room. Alison McCosh puts Bill in a coat that looks as if it weighs as much as he does, and the nuns in habits that photograph as blocks of black against whitewash. Senjan Jansen’s score is mostly low held notes and long silences, and it has the sense not to tell us how to feel in scenes where Murphy is already telling us.

Emily Watson has one long scene as Sister Mary, and it is the best thing here. Bill is brought into the parlour, given tea, asked after his girls, and Watson never raises her voice or drops the smile. The threat is all in what she knows about his family and how casually she lets it slip. We found ourselves not breathing. Nothing in the scene is louder than a teaspoon, and it is more menacing than most horror films manage with a knife.

Where the film goes wrong is in how much it explains. It cuts repeatedly back to Bill as a boy in the big house of Mrs Wilson (Michelle Fairley), the widow who kept his unmarried mother on as a servant when other women in her position were sent away. Keegan gave this a few sentences and let the reader do the sum. The film does the sum for us, more than once, and Alain Dessauvage’s cuts to the past soon fall into a pattern: Bill looks pained, and here comes the boy. Each return costs the present something. Eileen Walsh, who is good, gets one real scene, at the kitchen table, where Eileen says that if you want to get on in life there are things you have to ignore. We wanted more of her and fewer flashbacks.

The obvious comparison is Peter Mullan’s *The Magdalene Sisters* from 2002, which went inside the laundry and was furious. Mielants stays outside, at the gate and in the yard, and his film is about the town rather than the nuns. That is the right choice for this material, and it makes for a quieter film than some will want. The second half turns on a locked door and what Bill does about it, and we will leave it there.

It runs 99 minutes and does not feel short, because almost nothing in it is hurried. Watch it in a quiet room with the phone face down. The performance is built out of things you can miss, a hand that stops moving, a breath before a word, and if you miss them there is not much else to see.

*Fi1m score 79, published 9 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews are warm and narrow in their reasons. Nearly every critic puts Cillian Murphy first, praising a performance built on stillness, minimal dialogue and small physical detail as a coal merchant whose conscience is stirred by what he sees at the local convent. Praise also gathers around the restraint of Tim Mielants’ direction, the period detail of mid-1980s Ireland and the film’s refusal of melodrama in handling the Magdalene laundries; several critics single out Emily Watson’s menacing Mother Superior as the element that gives the film its threat.

Reservations are few and mostly about pace, with a handful warning that the slow, sombre approach will lose some viewers. The dissent is quiet. Slant finds the moral scheme too clear-cut and the drama at times hokey, and Deadline argues the film turns Claire Keegan’s novella into a trauma narrative that loses the book’s tact. No review is negative.

## Straight answers

**Is Small Things Like These worth watching?**

*Small Things Like These* is worth watching for anyone with patience for a slow, quiet drama, and we scored it 79. Cillian Murphy carries it almost without dialogue, and Emily Watson's one scene over tea is more menacing than most horror films manage. The flashbacks to Bill's childhood explain more than the film needs, and they cost the present something each time.

**How long is Small Things Like These, and what is it rated?**

*Small Things Like These* runs 1h 39m. It is a drama film.

**Where can I watch Small Things Like These in Romania?**

*Small Things Like These* is not on any streaming or rental service in Romania at the moment. It is available in 24 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Small Things Like These, and is it suitable for children?**

*Small Things Like These* is a 12A with no physical violence on screen, though it is a frightening film about the Irish laundries and what a town chooses not to see. The hardest moment is a mother dragging her screaming daughter through a convent gate. Teenagers will manage it; younger children will find it slow rather than upsetting, and it is not made for them.

**How does Small Things Like These compare to The Zone of Interest?**

*Small Things Like These* and [*The Zone of Interest*](https://film.one/film/the-zone-of-interest) both stay outside the walls and watch a household getting on with life beside something it will not look at, and Glazer's is the stronger and stranger film. Mielants tells a plainer story built on Cillian Murphy's face and a town's silence, and it explains itself more. Glazer withholds everything and does his frightening with sound alone.

**What should I watch after Small Things Like These?**

After *Small Things Like These*, try [*The Quiet Girl*](https://film.one/film/the-quiet-girl) (2022, Fi1m 84): Another Keegan adaptation, another child sent away, told with the same patience and less explaining. Then [*The Zone of Interest*](https://film.one/film/the-zone-of-interest) (2023, Fi1m 91): A household getting on with life beside a wall, and what it takes not to look; and [*Ida*](https://film.one/film/ida) (2013, Fi1m 85): A Polish novice, a black-and-white winter, and a past the Church would rather she left alone.

### Reviews we read (26)

- **Financial Times**, Danny Leigh (★★★★★): Cillian Murphy is riveting as a fuel merchant in this delicate, graceful adaptation set in 1980s Ireland that asks how we can be good amid the Magdalene laundries scandal. It proceeds with gossamer restraint and is thrilling in its subtlety. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/07989176-8076-4990-8a9d-c977fa2d084e)
- **IndieWire**, Rachel Pronger (85/100, inferred): Cillian Murphy gives another staggering performance in this profound Irish gem. Tim Mielants' understated adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novella packs surprising dramatic power. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy-1234954261/)
- **The Telegraph**, Tim Robey (85/100, inferred): Cillian Murphy mesmerises with moving vulnerability and hypnotic grace as a coal merchant who takes a stand against the cruelties of a Magdalene laundry in this tight-lipped, sad Irish drama. The film is shouldered with heroic understatement that could move mountains. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy/)
- **Variety**, Guy Lodge (Critics Pick): Mielants' subdued but powerful Berlinale opener is a mournful moral drama in which a father's conscience challenges the community's code of silence around the Magdalene laundries. It singles out Cillian Murphy's quiet intensity and exquisitely pained performance as the emotional core. [Read](https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy-1235911791/)
- **Radio Times**, James Mottram (4/5): Murphy excels with stillness and control in this understated character study of trauma and moral choice. The film captures mid-1980s rural Ireland with subtlety, avoiding melodrama while highlighting the Magdalene laundries. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/small-things-like-these-review/)
- **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novella is an atmospheric study in human decency set in 1980s Ireland, with Cillian Murphy as a coal merchant who performs a small but costly act of kindness. It casts a powerful spell despite its message of hardship and self-sacrifice. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/02/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy-shines-as-quiet-hero-in-powerful-80s-ireland-morality-tale-claire-keegan-tim-mielant-enda-walsh-magdalene-laundries)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (80/100, inferred): Cillian Murphy delivers a restrained yet heart-rending performance as a decent coal merchant whose encounter with cruelty at a local convent reopens old wounds and forces a moral reckoning. The film is subtle, resonant, and crisply unsentimental in its treatment of intergenerational trauma and complicity. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy-1235825750/)
- **Time Out**, Stephen A Russell (4/5): Murphy gives a profound, understated performance as a coal merchant grappling with conscience in 1980s Ireland. The film quietly explores themes of looking away versus acting, in the spirit of another Keegan adaptation. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/small-things-like-these-review-2024)
- **The AV Club**, Brianna Zigler (B): Cillian Murphy anchors this quiet, meditative portrait of a small town’s open secret as a coal merchant tormented by moral conflict over the Magdalene laundries. The film functions as a parable about how minor acts of kindness can counter systemic corruption. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/small-things-like-these-review)
- **The Times** (75/100, inferred): Cillian Murphy impresses again in this adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novella about confronting Ireland’s Magdalene laundries. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/small-things-like-these-film-review-cillian-murphy-claire-keegan-2f2g0r8x5)
- **Slant Magazine**, Pat Brown (60/100, inferred): The film fashions a believable vision of mid-1980s Ireland with meticulous realism, but its moral schema has the clarity of melodrama and at times gives way to hokey drama. Murphy convincingly embodies the quietly empathetic lead. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy/)
- **Empire**, Helen O'Hara: The film is a deliberate, understated drama that powerfully examines how good people allow bad things to happen through silence and complicity. Murphy's magnetic, taciturn performance as the coal merchant anchors the story and provides its quiet hope. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/small-things-like-these/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Sheila O'Malley: The film is a powerful, quiet drama about Ireland's Magdalene Laundries that stays faithful to Claire Keegan's novella. It singles out Cillian Murphy's marvelously expressive yet inward performance as the coal merchant whose conscience is stirred. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/small-things-like-these-film-review)
- **Screen Daily**: Murphy brings quiet intensity to the role of a man facing a crisis of conscience in this intimate adaptation. The controlled direction and subtle emotional weight make it a compelling, if sombre, Berlinale opener. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/small-things-like-these-berlin-review/5190562.article)
- **Sight and Sound**: The film offers an authentic, restrained portrait of 1980s Ireland through its attention to period detail and atmosphere. Murphy delivers a subtle performance as a man confronting his town's complicity in the Magdalene laundries. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/small-things-like-these-this-grimy-moving-portrait-1980s-ireland-knows-power-restraint)
- **The i Paper**, Christina Newland: Murphy delivers an astounding, magnetic performance as the monosyllabic coalman confronting institutional abuse. The film is a beautifully simple, slow-burn story of moral courage and complicity set against the Magdalene Laundries. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy-astounding-3350308)
- **Total Film**, James Mottram: Murphy proves less is more with a thoughtful, introspective turn as the coal merchant whose past traumas surface amid the convent scandal. Mielants crafts a dank, oppressive mood and understated power that grows through small moments and excellent supporting performances. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/drama-movies/small-things-like-these-review/)
- **Eye for Film**, Andrew Robertson (95/100, inferred): The film comes close to perfect as a reverent, capably constructed adaptation; the critic praises Cillian Murphy's incredible performance of stillness, smallness and precise physical detail as the standout element. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/small-things-like-these-2024-film-review-by-andrew-robertson)
- **Collider**, Emma Kiely (85/100, inferred): The critic lauds the film as a harrowing, accurate portrayal of Irish life under Catholic Church influence during the Magdalene laundries era. They single out Cillian Murphy's masterful inward performance, conveying an entire life of fears and indignation with extremely minimal dialogue. [Read](https://collider.com/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy/)
- **Film Stories**, James Harvey (85/100, inferred): A quietly brilliant, powerfully understated drama about a coalman struggling to ignore injustice in his community. The critic singles out Cillian Murphy's mesmeric performance as the element that holds the simple, small world together. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/small-things-like-these-review-a-quietly-brilliant-cillian-murphy-powerhouse/)
- **The Playlist**, Rafa Sales Ross (B+): A chillingly effective religious drama that harnesses horror tropes in a muted way; the critic praises Cillian Murphy's anchored performance and the emotional restraint culminating in a single tear, while noting the festival context. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy-anchors-chillingly-effective-religious-drama-berlinale-20240217/)
- **NME**, Lou Thomas (4/5): Praises Murphy's powerful performance in this sombre, slower drama about complicity in Magdalene Laundries, highlighting careful direction, cinematography, and Watson's terrifying supporting role; notes it may deter some due to pace but is intelligent. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/cillian-murphy-small-things-like-these-review-3588681)
- **The Wrap** (80/100, inferred): Murphy anchors this modest gem of an impressionistic morality play about a good man confronting complicity and moral choice in 1980s Ireland. The film excels in mood, visual texture and empathetic exploration of loneliness and ethical dilemmas akin to those in Zone of Interest. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/cillian-murphy-small-things-like-these-review/)
- **Digital Spy**, Emily Stedman (75/100, inferred): The critic finds it a quietly moving morality tale that delicately handles the topic of Magdalene Laundries with minimal but effective storytelling, praising Murphy's sympathetic performance and Watson's chilling turn, while noting the subtle storytelling delivers the emotional blow despite a potentially slow pace. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a62745532/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy/)
- **Deadline**, Stephanie Bunbury: The film turns the source novel into a trauma narrative centered on Murphy's visibly tormented performance, but misses the original's tactful understatement and nuance. Emily Watson's menacing Mother Superior is singled out as the element that injects high stakes and vivid threat into the proceedings. [Read](https://deadline.com/2024/02/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy-emily-watson-80s-set-irish-trauma-tale-berlin-film-festival-1235826556/)
- **Paste**, Nadira Begum (8.7): The critic praises Cillian Murphy's absorbing and affecting performance as the coal merchant Bill Furlong, noting his quiet grace and physicality in conveying trauma. They highlight the film's emphasis on willful ignorance and passive complicity in the Magdalene laundries abuses, with its dedication serving as a timely reminder of recent horrors. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/small-things-like-these/small-things-like-these-review-drama-cillian-murphy-convent-magdalene-laundry-abuse)

## Details

- **Director:** Tim Mielants
- **Director:** Tim Mielants
- **Writer:** Enda Walsh
- **Cinematography:** Frank van den Eeden
- **Editor:** Alain Dessauvage
- **Music:** Senjan Jansen
- **Production design:** Paki Smith
- **Costume design:** Alison McCosh
- **Producer:** Jeff Robinov, Drew Vinton, Alan Moloney
- **Cast:** Cillian Murphy as Bill Furlong; Emily Watson as Sister Mary; Michelle Fairley as Mrs. Wilson; Eileen Walsh as Eileen Furlong; Zara Devlin as Sarah Redmond; Clare Dunne as Sister Carmel; Helen Behan as Mrs. Kehoe; Ella Cannon as Laundry Girl
- **Runtime:** 1h 39m
- **First release (Germany):** 15 February 2024
- **Genres:** Drama
- **Budget:** $3 million
- **Box office:** $13 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBJ3zgH4pGM

## Where to watch in Romania

Not streaming, renting or buying in Romania at the last check.

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, KR, MX, NZ, PA, PT, SE, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Berlin International Film Festival 2024: Best Supporting Performance (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Magdalene Sisters* (2002): Peter Mullan goes inside the laundry Mielants keeps at a distance, and he is angry.
- *The Quiet Girl* (2022), Fi1m 84: Another Keegan adaptation, another child sent away, told with the same patience and less explaining. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-quiet-girl.md)
- *The Zone of Interest* (2023), Fi1m 91: A household getting on with life beside a wall, and what it takes not to look. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-zone-of-interest.md)
- *Ida* (2013), Fi1m 85: A Polish novice, a black-and-white winter, and a past the Church would rather she left alone. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ida.md)
- *A Hidden Life* (2019), Fi1m 82: Malick’s Austrian farmer refuses an oath everyone else has taken, at length, in beautiful fields. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-hidden-life.md)

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/small-things-like-these