[Mullan's] fictionalized screenplay brings awful realities to vivid life, reminding us that piety without compassion is meaningless.
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07/31/03
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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
McEwan nails the degenerate blend of humanity and hypocrisy that can coexist when people become slavemasters of moral rectitude.
07/31/03
Top CriticThe film gets to you; it's a powerhouse.
07/31/03
Top CriticGrim, grueling and triumphantly powerful.
07/30/03
The Magdalene Asylums really existed, and Mullan has captured their pious horror with a humanity that burns away any hint of exploitation.
07/30/03
Top CriticThis is a worthwhile movie because it is well-made and encourages viewers to think and feel.
07/29/03
Top CriticWhat is most horrific about Mullan's look at the Magdalene asylums is that the Church had so strong a grip...that parents would be complicit in the barbaric treatment of their own children
07/29/03
Proposes itself as a corrective. Soon after, there's a scene powerful enough to induce a revolutionary conversion.
07/29/03
Top CriticTwo hours of, "This is wrong!" can be difficult to bear. What makes The Magdalene Sisters much better than a censorious browbeating is the girls themselves...
07/22/03
The real-life story behind The Magdalene Sisters is harrowing enough without writer-director Peter Mullan's melodramatic embellishments.
06/14/03
A gutsy dramatization of a particular institutional abuse of the Catholic Church in 20th Century Ireland.
05/28/03
A superbly made film about the shocking treatment of young girls rejected from their families by the nuns.
04/26/03
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04/18/03
This extraordinary film is celluloid incendiarism, rabble-rousing cinema with a delirious, delicious edge of black comedy which I estimate to be about 90-95% intentional.
03/25/03
Mullan encourages uniformly strong performances from his wonderful cast in roles that must have been physically and psychologically challenging.
03/10/03
It’s occasionally heavy-handed and emotionally manipulative, but the subject matter justifies the anger you’ll feel.
02/22/03
This is a strong film about a shameful period in recent Church history.
02/10/03
A harrowing insight into a dark period of religious repression, and a personal triumph for the multi-tasking Mr Mullan.
11/23/02
The film is forceful, perhaps a bit too tidy, but thoroughly accessible, moving and ultimately devastating stuff.
10/24/02
The Magdalene Sisters more than fulfills the promise of Mr. Mullan's audacious feature film debut, Orphans.
10/24/02
Top CriticLatest News for The Magdalene Sisters
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