THE SECRET SCRIPTURE
Ireland, 2016, 108 minutes, Colour.
Rooney Mara, Vanessa Redgrave, Eric Bana, Theo James, Jack Reynor, Susan Lynch, Aidan Turner, Adrian Dunbar.
Directed by Jim Sheridan.
This is an Irish story, a story that takes placed in two different time periods, the 1940s and 1990s. It was made by Jim Sheridan who in the 1980s and 1990s chronicled some of Ireland’s history, featuring Daniel Day Lewis and three of his films, My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, The Boxer, as well is making the stark film, The Field. He returned to an Ireland very harsh in its past, still harsh but mellowing in later times.
The framework is the part of the story told in the 1990s. A sympathetic doctor, Dr Grene, Eric Banner, is summoned by the doctor- superintendent of an institution because it is closing and all the residents have to be moved. Problems are caused by an elderly lady, Rose, played by Vanessa Redgrave who also offers the voice-over for the rest of the film. Rose is dignified, sometimes bewildered, living in her past, unwilling to move.
When her possessions are thrown into a rubbish skip, Dr Grene is able to recover them, especially her copy of the Bible. And, she reveals, on the tops of pages and in the margins, she has written details of her story. Dr Grene gets permission to stay with her, with the help of a sympathetic nurse, Susan Lynch, and she recounts her story. The film goes into flashback.
In 1942, Ireland did not enter World War II but there was advertising for RAF pilots. Rose, a mixture of the waif and touches of strength, comes to live with her aunt and work in her cafe. She is played by Rooney Mara. There are several immediate influences on Rose. She encounters a sympathetic young man, Michael, Jack Raynor, at his shop. She is threatened by the IRA chief, Aidan Turner, and told to choose the right side. A strong swimmer, she goes to the beach but is warned by a stranger that she is swimming in the wrong place. The stranger then gives her a lift but she is mystified as to who he is and what he does.
The mystery is solved when he arrives at the cafe and is revealed to be a local priest, Father Gaunt (Theo James). From then on, her life becomes something of a tangle, the priest attracted to her, ambivalent in his behaviour, causing some gossip in the town. Michael has become a pilot and after parachuting and being caught in a tree, Rose has to rescue him, taking him to her hut in the woods where she has had to go because of the gossip and her aunt, conscious of customers, has fired her. She and Michael love each other. The IRA, however, come to threaten her and Michael escapes.
In the meantime, Father Gaunt is conscious of the gossip in the town, realises that Rose is pregnant and that people think he could be the father. He writes a denunciation letter to an institution, writing of Rose as nymphomaniac. Her aunt commits her.
Here is the harshness of Irish history, severe nuns, severe nurses, doctors relying on electric shock… The important fact of Rose’s life is her pregnancy and the birth of her child – and accusations that she killed her child, reasons for her internment, her declaring that her child was alive, and her being tormented by these memories over the decades.
With Dr Grene helping her, many audiences might have a wishful thinking ending in mind – and it does come about with some credible information twists at the end of the film.
Ireland, harshness, judgemental in moral issues, the influence of the church, the role of the clergy, this is a story of what was and the yearning for what might have been.
1. An Irish story? A harsh story? A story of regrets? Victims?
2. The work of the director, his range of films with Irish stories and themes?
3. The 1990s, Sligo, the institution, the house for sale? More ordinary? The characters in this context?
4. The 1940s, in the Irish Republic, World War II? The town, the cafe, the hut in the countryside, the church, the woods, the water, ocean and caves? The mental institution, the wards, corridors, the shock treatment? The war, the bombers, the flights? The feel of the period?
5. The musical score, the piano accompaniment and the playing? The final song and its themes?
6. The title, the copy of the Bible, Rose and her writing in the Bible, her story, her secret scripture? The images and pictures and the Bible? Michael and his medal and its place in the Bible, lost?
7. The 1990s, Vanessa Redgrave as Rose, her age, half a century in the institution? Her emotional state, mental state, her ability to communicate, that he had idiosyncrasies? The routines in the institution? The staff? Closing down, having to move? Her refusal? The harshness of Dr Hart? Taking all her goods and putting them in the garbage skip? Dr Grene, his being assigned by the Archdiocese of Sligo? The sympathetic nervous? The clashes with the autocratic Dr Hart? Dr Grene taking responsibility, recovering her goods, especially the Bible?
8. Rose, the opportunity to tell her story, Dr Grene and the nurse listening? The flashbacks interspersed? The documents, the Archbishop and his choice of Dr Grene? The audience and wishful thinking that Dr Grene might be her son? The explanations, Father Gaunt as Archbishop of Sligo, his choosing Dr Grene, rectifying the wrong’s after 50 years? Dr Grene, taking Rose home, the metal?
9. The older Rose, the voice-over, spoken by Vanessa Redgrave? The resemblance between Rooney Mara and Vanessa Redgrave?
10. Rose’s story, her mother, Belfast, coming back south to Sligo? Her aunt, the job, working in the diner? The range of customers? Life in the town? Rose, the touch of the ethereal? The confrontation by the IRA man? The sinister threats?
11. Rose as a character, sweet, delicate? Meeting Michael at the shop, the attraction? Her assertiveness, going swimming, the encounter with Father Gaunt and his comments about where she should swim? His giving her a lift and her accepting? Asking who he was, puzzled? Serving him in the diner, discovering the truth? Watching him stop the fight, the punch? Her response to him? An enigma?
12. Father Gaunt, his character, first seen not wearing his collar, reprimanding Rose about the swimming, giving a lift? His large collar, going to be served at the restaurant, stopping the fight, pouring out the alcohol, the deadly punch? Rumours about him with Rose? His being intense, meeting Rose, going to the house and encountering Michael? The plausibility of his paternity when Rose was pregnant? His writing the report and accusing her of nymphomaniac? The aunt and her response to the rumours, firing Rose? The aunt signing the document for her confinement?
13. Michael, at the store, joining the air force, an attractive character, his flights, the parachute, Rose with a knife and freeing him, going to the house? The IRA watching, their threats? Hostility towards his being in the RAF? The love between the two, the sexual encounter, the IRA attack, his fleeing? Rose left alone? The later scenes of Michael, taken by the IRA, executed and shot?
14. Rose, her being taken by the authorities, the role of Father Gaunt? The doctors, examining her, her pregnancy? The severity of the nuns? Of the nurses? Her escaping, going to the water, swimming, going to the cave, giving birth, the audience seeing her with the stone, the presumption? The accusation and this report going round, everybody believing that she had murdered her child? The protests, the fact that she was severing the umbilical cord? Her belief that her child was alive?
15. Rose in the institution, the effect on her health, mental health? The severity of the shock treatment? Subduing her, eating, taking part in the routines of the institution? And there for 50 years?
16. Audience appreciation of Rose, sympathy for her? The accusations, the deprivation of the child? Her being deceived? The audience seeing Father Gaunt and his concern, following Rose to the water, the boat, going to the cave, taking the child, the adoption? His telling her that Michael was dead?
17. Rose after 50 years, Dr Grene and the document from the Archdiocese, seeing the identity of the Archbishop? His story, his parents, rather cold, going back to the house, finding the documents, the letter from his father to his stepson? The medal?
18. The confrontation with Dr Hart, the support of the nurse, Dr Grene taking Rose to his own home and to a future? The fulfilment of her half a century of hopes and belief? Dr Grene reunited with his birth mother?
