Though it has a tendency to leave characters undeveloped and storylines empty, the overall portrait is significant.
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09/16/03
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The Magdalene Sisters (2003)
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Reviews Counted:143
Fresh:129
Rotten:14
Average Rating:7.6/10
Consensus: A typical women-in-prision film made untypical because it's based on real events.
Theatrical Release:Aug 1, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $4,685,516
Synopsis: Peter Mullen's shocking drama THE MAGDALENE SISTERS is based on real events that took place in Ireland from the 1960s until 1996 when an estimated 30,000 young women, considered by their families... [More]
Starring: Geraldine McEwan, Dorothy Duffy, Anne-Marie Duff, Eileen Walsh
Director: Peter Mullan
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Reviews for The Magdalene Sisters
A powerful piece of agitprop.
09/15/03
Something like a 'Masterpiece Theatre' retread of an old Roger Corman women-in-prison flick...
09/15/03
Brilliant and cruel, but Mullan’s one-sided horror story never delves into the ascetic doctrine explained by Gregory of Nazianzus as “the pleasure of no pleasure.”
09/12/03
Much like last year’s Oscar-nominated “The Pianist,” “Magdalene” is a movie that attempts to get at the core of pain, anguish and perseverance.
09/10/03
harrowing and mesmerizing
09/10/03
The Magdalene Sisters has the force of an alarm being sounded.
09/05/03
The outrage of actor-turned- writer-director Peter Mullan is palpable, and every frame of this shocking and occasionally exploitative film is designed to ensure that this reaction is contagious.
09/05/03
remains far too formulaic to last longer than a passing footnote soon destined for dusty shelves
09/05/03
An edgy, complex tale.
09/05/03
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.
09/03/03
Top CriticEven if you question the validity behind many of the arguments presented in the story, there is no denying the volcanic passion behind this often brilliant film.
08/30/03
Mullan's film both amplifies and flattens these stories, so they are at once sensational and too intimate, by filling in narrative gaps and detailing scenes of mistreatment and malevolence.
08/30/03
Will make you furious and dejected, but in the end it offers an optimistic if unsettling twist.
08/28/03
Top CriticForget Freddy Versus Jason. For a real horror show, try The Magdalene Sisters.
08/27/03
A powerful message about what can happen when major institutions encroach on the freedoms of an entire gender.
08/25/03
This is a truly horrifying film that shows what religion can capable of even in modern times.
08/25/03
If The Magdalene Sisters occasionally flirts with cartoonishness, the movie is tempered by Mullan's considerable filmmaking skills.
08/22/03
Mullan can direct scenes so that your skin crawls while your blood freezes, but his feel for drama is fairly primitive ... and before the movie ends, you may feel bilious from his force-fed revelations.
08/22/03
It is a strong, affecting movie about man's ability to twist holiness into horror.
08/22/03
Latest News for The Magdalene Sisters
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