Starring Clare Dunne, Harriet Walter, Conleth Hill. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd.
Herself is not a film that one would go into lightly; a drama about an abused woman who has to navigate personal issues, the horrors of her past and find stable housing for her and her two daughters is not the stuff to wander into lightly.
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, Herself follows Sandra as she decides being one hundred and thirty-something on the housing list in Ireland isn’t going to cut it, living in a hotel isn’t feasible forever, and the threat of her violent ex-husband Gary is too much to bear. Instead, she opts to build a house in the back garden of her employer Peggy.
The film is a heavier, and more serious work than Lloyd has shown the ability to handle in the past. Mamma Mia! may have made huge box office returns, but both that and Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady felt flat in their direction, perhaps owing to her theatre background. Here, Lloyd shows a style that isn’t flashy but is distinctly human.
The screenplay by Clare Dunne and Malcolm Campbell is perfect, not really full of speechifying but filled with character beats. Looking at the domestic abuse in Ireland with a view to the working class is done in a way that would please Ken Loach.
Dunne is perfect as the resilient Sandra, her bid to build a house in less sure hands could have been a We Bought a Zoo style family film filled with slapstick comedy and a gurning lead, but Dunne opts instead for a quiet restraint. Then there’s Dame Harriet Walter as her employer, former doctor with a broken hip, Peggy, who employs her as she did Sandra’s mother. Walter is one of the UK’s finest actresses and this is a prime time to give her a nomination for her supporting turn, she turns what could be a cash cow role of “you can do it” into a fully rounded person, filled with hope and understanding.
Similarly, Conleth Hill, having spent the last few years as sinister Varys in Game of Thrones plays builder Aido who helps in building the house, his role is gruff and short-tempered but done in a way that speaks to the film’s good nature and belief in the better elements of mankind.
The film’s look at the quagmire of temporary housing and red tape shows that there is a fundamental issue with how we and deal with domestic abuse. The spectre of abuse shown by Ian Lloyd Anderson’s Gary isn’t overdone either. He’s outwardly nice and presentable, it’s the sort of writing that shows how abusive people get into people’s lives. The mental scars and damage shown in the physical injury of a broken hand with nerve damage shows the lasting impact that such abuse can have on a person, making physical the mental.
To watch the film and not feel hope even in it’s darkest moments is to miss the truly human heart within it, what the film does is exemplify the injustice of abuse, the power of community and the need to be better to one another.
