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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Magdalene Sisters, The

Universal acclaim
Based on 38 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 24 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Peter Mullan
Directed by: Peter Mullan
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 1, 2003
DVD: March 23, 2004
Running Time: 119 minutes, Color
Origin: UK / Ireland
Summary
RATING: R for violence/cruelty, nudity, sexual content and language
Starring Geraldine McEwan, Anne-Marie Duff, Nora-Jane Noone, Dorothy Duffy, Eileen Walsh, Mary Murray, Britta Smith, and Frances Healy
An unflinching and compelling emotional drama, charting several years in the young lives of four "fallen woman" who were rejected by their families and abandoned to the mercy of the Catholic Church in 1960's Ireland. (Miramax Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
A pungent, powerful film that points an accusing finger not at religious beliefs but at flawed human institutions. It also targets social and cultural mores that are almost medieval in their patriarchal bias against girls and women.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A fierce, brilliant film that breaks (and then mends) your heart.
Read Full Review >Film Threat K.J. Doughton
Although this ain't Hogwarts, there's full-scale witchery being practiced behind Magdalene's locked doors.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
A picture so powerfully harrowing, its slight shortcomings are forgettable compared to the entire film's cumulative effect. It's that searing.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
A stirring, emotionally galvanizing film, not only due to its shattering subject matter but thanks to Mullan's spot-on eye for casting and fluid, uncoercive style.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Graced with performers who bring a purity of emotion to their work, the film is always dramatically convincing. There is a fundamental air of truth about it, a sense that, horrific though things seem, this is how it must have been.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Mullan's movie is admiringly uncompromising. He refuses to augment the horrors with relief.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
See The Magdalene Sisters for its own sake; the performances alone are inspirational. But see it too as an example of how powerful a feature film still can be in the hands of an impassioned filmmaker.
Slate David Edelstein
Both a masterpiece and a holy hell: Watching it, you feel you're being punished for a crime you didn't commit. Which puts you, come to think of it, in the same frame of mind as those poor Magdalene girls.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
While its perhaps not the best date film of the year, it is a grim and unmistakable masterpiece of bleak, black sorrow.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
It is an unsettling tale told simply and chillingly by director Peter Mullan, with stand-out performances, an evocative soundtrack and spare, haunting visuals.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The picture has immediacy, force and humanity. It's a muckraking work of art.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The whole system was sadistic and indefensible, and the church, looking the other way as long as profits rolled in from the laundries, deserves the scorn that Mullan and his fine cast heap on it.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
The cast is amazing -- two of the lead actresses are first-timers.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A harrowing look at institutional cruelty, perpetrated by the Catholic Church in Ireland, and justified by a perverted hysteria about sex.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It is passionate and angry and rousing where you might expect it to become numbing and depressing.
Read Full Review >Variety David Rooney
Mullan's increased maturity as a director is evident in his skill at manipulating light and dark dramatic tones, and shifting between moods of anger and plaintive melancholy.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
The Magdalene Sisters would be too painful to watch if it didn't have a silver lining. Suffice it to say that it is possible to fly over this religious cuckoo's nest and remain free. All it takes is courage and the timely kindness of strangers.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
When it comes time for some of the girls to flee, the result is one of the most emotionally satisfying of all prison breaks.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Why was this film made after the homes had already been abolished? One reason, hardly trifling, is that it was made excellently. Thematically, however, it stings -- as a reminder that Catholicism is only one religion that is dominated by males and that this domination is proprietary.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Its brutal take on living under totalitarian rule periodically suggests Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four." Mullan makes the authority figures (such as the nun played by Geraldine McEwan) grimly believable, but as in "Orphans," there are times when he doesn't know when to quit.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
A rip-roaring feminist yarn that should offer relief to viewers anxious for an alternative to the boys-with-guns flicks of summer.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
The film is beautifully acted by all, but Nora-Jane Noone, as the sloe-eyed orphan Bernadette, is first among equals here, and a genuine find.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
A film of haunting eloquence and justifiable fury.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
If The Magdalene Sisters occasionally flirts with cartoonishness, the movie is tempered by Mullan's considerable filmmaking skills.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The film is an attack on religious hypocrisy, mixing melodrama and black humour in a volatile blend.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A disturbing and compelling motion picture that depicts the forces that try to suppress the human spirit, and the strength of these girls in overcoming it.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Mullan errs by making all the sisters dragon ladies. Still, the film gets to you; it's a powerhouse.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Generations of healthy spirits were twisted and deformed by the good Sisters of Mercy, all in the name of salvation.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
This shocker is often shameless, not least in the climactic confrontation with Sister Bridget, but it's impossible not to be moved by the ending -- if only because the torture is finally over.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
Nobody does shrewishness better than McEwan. [8 August 2003, p. 84]
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The film might have been more powerful, not to mention fair, if the nuns believed they were doing right; only on movie night, when McEwan sees herself in Ingrid Bergman in "The Bells Of St. Mary's," does Mullan grant her so much as the delusion of rectitude.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Mark Sells
Though it has a tendency to leave characters undeveloped and storylines empty, the overall portrait is significant.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
The horrors therein are vivid, even if the movie is a bit plodding.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.4 (out of 10) based on 24 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Sarah O. gave it a10:
I was shocked at the abuse that went on in this movie but its one of the best movies I've ever seen.Acting was nothing short then superb and well done to Peter Mullan. Excellent movie!
c hunt gave it a9:
Excellent film- made better by using unknowns....excellent acting....makes me embarassed to be a Catholic....and they did not close until 1998!
J. Smith gave it a 10:
Fascinating but ultimately misguided. A masterpiece.
Joe H. gave it a 10:
Simply a great movie.
Dennis P. gave it an 8:
Powerful and disturbing in it's depiction of atrocities that could only happen in the name of organized religion. The type of movie Hollywood is incapable of making because it would probably have Julia Roberts in the starring role.
Andrew G. gave it an 8:
It's a melodrama rooted in raw reality. First-class directions, great acting.
Paulo V. gave it a 10:
What a Wonderful movie!!!
