As Cillian Murphy prepares to reprise his role as fearsome gangster Tommy Shelby in the upcoming Netflix Peaky Blinders movie, his intense performance in the trailer for new movie Small Things Like These is just as goosebump-inducing.
After Murphy’s well-deserved Oscar win for his performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan‘s explosive biopic Oppenheimer, his next intense role comes in the form of historical drama Small Things Like These. Based on Claire Keegan’s novel of the same name, Murphy showcases his character Bill Furlong in the haunting and gritty trailer (see below) that is a far cry from Oppenheimer.
In the trailer, quiet and melancholic Furlong is working in the coal mines and blends into the dark, bleak surroundings. However, when he sees a young woman being forcibly delivered to a convent, his disturbing discovery of abuse in the rural Irish community forces him to confront his own past traumas and risk upsetting the town by exposing the exploitation.
It’s definitely not a light-hearted watch and tackles painful themes as Murphy takes center stage in a movie that looks to be intoxicating and emotional, which I think could earn him his next Oscar win.
Small Things Like These takes on big things
Small Things Like These is an adaptation of Claire Keegan’s best-selling novel which tells the story of Bill Furlong, a hard-working coal merchant and father who grapples with his traumatic past when he discovers secret abuses happening inside his local convent in the small Irish town of New Ross.
These ordeals are inspired by the real-life history of the Magdalene Laundries, a set of workhouses and asylums run by the Catholic Church where ‘fallen women’, such as unmarried mothers and orphans, were physically and mentally abused in horrific conditions.
Furlong struggles with combatting the powerful and corrupt institution and his own past suffering as he thinks about the death of his mother, as well as the life of his daughters following such a barbaric revelation.
Produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s company Artists Equity, Murphy told Vanity Fair of how he convinced Damon to take on the project: “I gave the script to Matt [Damon] when we were shooting, and he loved it. I remember saying that it’s a different film, but it would share some thematic crossover with Manchester by the Sea, which Matt also produced…. It was like I was pitching between Manchester by the Sea and Doubt.”
Small Things Like These also stars Eileen Walsh as Furlong’s wife Eileen, Michelle Fairley as Mrs. Wilson, Emily Watson as Sister Mary, and Clare Dunne as Sister Carmel.
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