The Magdalene Sisters (2003)
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 146
Fresh: 132 | Rotten: 14
A typical women-in-prision film made untypical because it's based on real events.
Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 41
Fresh: 41 | Rotten: 0
A typical women-in-prision film made untypical because it's based on real events.
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 12,755
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Movie Info
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
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Cast
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Anne-Marie Duff
Margaret -
Dorothy Duffy
Rose/Patricia -
Eileen Walsh
Crispina -
Nora-Jane Noone
Bernadette -
Geraldine McEwan
Sister Bridget -
Mary Murray
Una -
Britta Smith
Katy -
Frances Healy
Sister Jude -
Eithne McGuinness
Sister Clementine -
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All Critics (151) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (137) | Rotten (14) | DVD (21)
This drama about a shocking reality from recent history balances a light touch with searing intensity and a sense of moral outrage.
Grimly believable.
You may never look at a nun the same way again.
Top CriticHarsh and angry, this Oscar-worthy film stages a deliberately paced, thoroughly researched indictment of institutionalized cruelty and the kind of ignorance and hypocrisy that validates and encourages it.
The Magdalene Sisters has the force of an alarm being sounded.
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.
The movie is an indictment of systems that perpetuate oppression and exploitation by making the administrators believe their every cruel act is justified and by compelling complicity in victims and bystanders.
A damning indictment of the Catholic Church that lingers in the mind long after if ends. Angry, compassionate but never hysterical, this a true cinematic achievement.
This is a riveting piece of drama about a forgotten slice of history, no matter what the esteemed movie critics at the Vatican say about it.
Magdelene proves to be touching, potent, and incredibly human in its emotional complexity.
A deliberately provocative film that triggers the audience's emotions in order to highlight important issues of personal freedom. Amen to that.
The Magdalene Sisters isn't perfect, but it sheds light on a story that needed to be told.
Mullan has made a vicious and relentless film, but his outrage is well-earned.
The Magdalene Sisters is exquisite, riveting and very disturbing.
Mullan has done an expert job of creating a harrowing atmosphere without pulling punches or excluding a sharp sense of humor without slipping into bad taste.
One nice added touch would have been a commentary track featuring one of the women who had spent time in such a hell hole speaking of her experiences as she watched the film.
Seething with moral outrage...If Mullan sins, it's that his anger gets the better of him. He sacrifices dramatic flow on the altar of polemics.
Audience Reviews for The Magdalene Sisters
Essential viewing!
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Foreign Titles
- Die unbarmherzigen Schwestern (DE)










In 1960's, young women where incarcerated in a Irish convent, run by the Catholic church, for committing such 'misdeeds' as flirting with boys, becoming pregnant out of wedlock, and being raped. They are physically and psychologically abused by the head nun and her sadistic staff, who are convinced they are doing the Lord's work.
Having based his screenplay on actual Magdalene inmates' experiences, Mullan achieves an authenticity of what life was like for the young women that had to endure the injustices, humiliation and brutality of these asylums. At times it's very difficult to stomach, such is the sheer power and uncompromising telling of this harrowing story and it's full of overwhelmingly excellent performances. Geraldine McEwan as Sister Bridget, the head nun, gives one of the most absolute personifications of evil ever commited to the screen and Eileen Walsh is heart-breakingly compelling as the naive, downtrodden and religiously devoted Crispina. Her performance was worthy of so much more recognition than she recieved. Speaking of which, the entire cast and crew deserved more awards attention on it's release. Had this been directed by someone with a higher profile than Mullan and his crew, this film would have been hailed as a masterpiece. As it is, it's had to rely on word-of-mouth to find an audience but this doesn't lessen the effect or superb work by everyone involved here. Mullan's direction is flawless, the cinematography by Nigel Willoughby is stark, and almost de-saturated, adding to the overall feeling of desperation and loneliness of the women and as mentioned, the performances are perfectly pitched from a largely unknown cast. It may be hard for some to accept this behaviour went on but it's even harder to accept that these asylums lasted until 1996, when the last one was finally shut down.
A harrowing and emotionally charged drama that while based on fact, is highly subversive. If the Vatican condemns a film on it's release (which it did with this) then there's no doubt that you're in for a hard-hitting film.
Painful, provocative and important!