If Oppenheimer felt like the grandest possible stage for Cillian Murphy as an acting giant, Small Things Like These feels like a showcase of his ability to tell the most intricate emotions with the subtlest of facial expressions. It's a very quiet film and for that I found it to be very powerful in large part because of all of the things you don't see play out on screen. It's very effective in how it transports you into this time period and speaking as someone who doesn't really know anything about this part of history I found it to be very authentic. As I said, it's very quiet as a film with a minimal of flashy visuals or dialogue and while that often worked I couldn't help but feel it affected the pacing somewhat. For a mere 90 minute movie it felt longer which in and off itself is not a bad thing but I suppose after the slow build up I think I wanted just a little bit more out of the ending. Small Things Like These feels like a passion project through and through and one that uses the simplest of cinematic techniques to tell its story to great effect. I could see some people finding it too emotionally distant but for me I kept wanting to explore the emotions it was trying to convey. It's not a film I'll rewatch in a hurry but also not one that'll leave my mind anytime soon.
