Eileen Walsh
- 2008
- NR
Their tenth wedding anniversary rapidly approaching, a husband and wife from a small provincial town are forced to face the their marriage is in serious danger of dissolving in director Declan Recks' adaptation of Eugene O'Brien's deeply introspective stage play. Billy (Aiden Kelly) and Breda (Eileen Walsh) have been married for nearly a decade, and lately their relationship has taken on an air of suffocating monotony. They have two children together, though it would seem that starting a family has pushed them each further apart as opposed to bringing them closer together. Most nights, Billy can be found at the local pub, knocking drinks back with his buddies as Breda languishes in front of the television with the children. While Billy clings to both the bottle and his reputation as a local hero (he once saved a small child from drowning in the river) while getting lost in fantasies about an attractive younger woman, Breda does her best to remain optimistic about the future. She sees their upcoming anniversary as an ideal opportunity for them to start focusing on ways of improving their bleak situation, but as the big day draws near Billy and Breda's disparate desires begin to come into focus not just for each other, but themselves as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aidan Kelly, Eileen Walsh, (more)
One of the Catholic Church's most infamous institutions is the focus of this controversial independent feature from Scottish actor and erstwhile director Peter Mullan. Set in 1964, The Magdalene Sisters hones in on the Magdalene convent, a place where purportedly wayward young women have been sent by their families for reform. Many of the girls are locked up in the institution for questionable "sins," and the movie presents several of them as case studies: Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff), who is sent away after being sexually assaulted by a cousin at a wedding; Rose (Dorothy Duffy) and Crispina (Eileen Walsh), who are both unwed mothers; and Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone), whose licentiousness has raised the ire of her former orphanage. It soon becomes clear that the reformatory is more of a manual-labor prison, however, as their girls are forced to work long hours and endure endless physical humiliation and abuse at the hands of the head nun, Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan). As their degradation at the hands of the convent's administrators increases, each girl plots her escape, but each finds that she's never far enough from the sisters' all-encompassing reach. The Magdalene Sisters premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it was awarded the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion; the Vatican officially condemned the film after its premiere. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne-Marie Duff, Dorothy Duffy, (more)
In Janice Beard 45 WPM, an eccentric Scottish woman dives headfirst into London's work force, which may or may not be ready for her. Janice (Eileen Walsh) began dealing with an unusual home life from birth; her dad died of a heart attack as she was being born, sending her mother into a funk from which she's never quite recovered. At 23, Janice decides she needs to get a job to help pay for her mother's medical bills, so she puts together a resume and starts looking for work -- never mind that her c.v. is, for the most part, a pack of lies. Janice manages to flub her way into the typing pool of an auto company, where she unexpectedly becomes part of the office intrigues of Sean (Rhys Ifans), an ambitious office assistant. Patsy Kensit appears in a supporting role as Julia, a secretarial supervisor; Rhys Ifans would later appear in the Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant vehicle Notting Hill. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eileen Walsh, Rhys Ifans, (more)
