Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s adjustment of Emma Donoghue’s 2016 book is a totally absorbing descent into the mist– of 1860s Ireland, of mysticism, of religious fervour. Put aside the distracting framing device, two present-tense bookends assumedly meant to highlight our ability to suspend disbelief that end up undercutting this eerie, impressive duration film.The ambiance is off, the state of mind unsettling, from the minute we satisfy Florence Pugh’s Lib, an English nurse sent to a remote Irish town to observe(or, as many townspeople hope, to validate)a reported miracle: 11-year-old Anna(an excellent Kíla Lord Cassidy)who has actually refused to consume for four months and yet remains oddly healthy. Lelio’s movie approaches Anna’s anorexia mirabilis as a slow-burn secret, as Lib grows fond of the woman and ever more disappointed with the inaction of those around her, individuals willing to accept sacrifice to protect their preferred version of the story. It’s a thriller of truth versus faith that doesn’t judge the latter.It also declares faith in Pugh as a performer, in a thorny duration role that remembers her breakout in Woman
Macbeth. Pugh has yet to kip down a less than solid efficiency, especially as a female bristling at expectations, and she is utterly convincing here. Her Lib is fiery and unfaltering, reasonable and prone as anybody to flights of desperate creativity. Pugh is nearly terrifyingly self-possessed as an entertainer; as Lib’s frustration with her project and desperation to save Anna escalate, I discovered myself clenching my teeth, transfixed.What might easily have actually ended up being melodrama or a low-cost injury plot instead feels, in Lelio’s hands, strange and lovely, shot through
with the natural durability of rural Ireland. The Marvel is an uncommon journey, Lelio’s sharp instructions never allowing what could be foreseeable discoveries to tip into predictability. However it’s Pugh who’s the wonder here. Even with the framing device– yes, this is a story– you can’t help however think her.