Early in “The Magdalene Sisters” the question is posed whether it is a sin to be beautiful. Later, we learn that the Ireland of the 1960s depicted in this film basically made it a crime to be a vibrant young woman and certainly a sin to be a sexy teen. This is a film about institutionalized abuse that was housed in the guise of purging sin and making the world safe from the whiles of teenage girls.

It starts at a happy occasion, with the happy faces of youth itself. Margaret (Anne Marie Duff) is asked by her cousin to go upstairs with him during the reception for a wedding. Weird music from the voice of local priest completely fills the room with beautiful resonance. Once upstairs, Margaret’s cousin forces himself upon her. In the minutes that follow, Margaret is judged and convicted while the cousin is not disturbed. Judgment is swift and the sentence lands Margaret in a Magdalene facility for wayward girls funded and set up by the Catholic Church. And may God help them.

We are introduced to two other girls. One, Bernadette, (Nora-Jane Noone) is a pretty girl living in an orphanage and starved for attention receiving it in the school yard from local boys. She playfully flirts twisting her hair and playing with her mouth in almost innocent fashion. Innocence not actually having been lost, it is still decided that Bernadette possesses the potential for wayward behavior, and soon, finds herself housed in a Magdalene facility along side Margaret.

Quickly, we meet Rose (Dorothy Duffy) who has had the misfortune of having a baby out of wedlock at a young age. Her parents have become numb to her as she pleads to be able to keep the baby. A priest explains to her that she has nothing to offer the baby and that it would be better to have the child put up for adoption. With a single signature, the baby is immediately taken from her hospital room and Rose to sent to Magdalene. Her name is further taken from her there and she becomes known as Patricia. Her parents do not even look at her baby.

What happens next is painful and told with tedious power and intelligence. The director Peter Mullan told me that the last Magdalene house was not closed until 1996 and the women there did not want to leave. His film “The Magdalene Sisters” shows us how that might just happen because institutionalization in the name of God (or, at least, one group’s interpretation of what God wants) can have a very damaging effect on the mind’s and very souls of those trapped within. Leaving itself could be a sin.

Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan) rules the facility with chilling authority backed by the Catholic Church. She miserly packs away the money earned by the girls (who wash clothing in a kind of factory) taping the funds within biscuit tins later locking the monies in a drawer and losing the key. Sister Bridget is strong and has the capacity to physically abuse, but it is the mental abuse that is longer lasting. She is so piercing in her gaze and so cutting in her remarks that watching her on the screen can make you shiver.

“Magdalene” is buoyed by wonderful supporting performances highlighted by Eileen Walsh as Crispina, the simple girl who hopes to one day reunite with her little boy also born to her out of wedlock. Walsh captures her character in a grungy almost Kathy Bates fashion with the smell and look of a women forced to the brink of insanity by an insane facility run by diabolical officials.

Director and Screenwriter Peter Mullan smartly avoids the whimsical trappings of, say, “Annie” making the facility itself a major player as the walls appear to cause the girls to change. Instead of pulling together in the hard knock life they have found themselves, the girls develop personalities that are selfish and single minded: what must they do to get back to their families? Ironically, it is their families who have willingly put them there. And in Bernadette’s case, the orphanage would be preferable to the oppressive life behind Magdalene walls.

I have called this film “Little Women” meets “Midnight Express” and, man, I can’t back away from that description. Wholesome family programming is perverted realistically in “Magdalene” making this an edgy, complex tale. Certainly, this story told from the inmate’s perspective depicts the religious rulers of the institution as evil and the purpose without justification. Of course, that may have been they way it really happened. I mean, locking away a teenage girl because of having a child out of wedlock is too harsh in any society and fails to address the origin of the problem. One cannot change human nature by hiding it and not educating others of the dangers of reckless impulse. This is what troubled me most. While in the Magdalene house, the girls receive minor religious training (they appear to read the bible) but no real education. They are made to work washing clothing and not compensated for their services. When the last facility was closed in 1996, no wonder the women within did not want to leave. The Magdalene walls were all they knew.

Possible Movie Tagline: “The Magdalene Sisters” what really happened to the Little Women in your backyard and the long wait for the arrival of that Midnight Express to take them away from it all.

Jonathan W. Hickman, 2003