Emily Watson’s performance is extraordinary: God’s Creatures reviewed

There are some films that you know will be quality simply by the actors who have agreed to be in them. They’re like a kitemark. Emily Watson is such an actor, as is Paul Mescal, who hasn’t put a foot wrong since Normal People and must have an excellent agent or just a feel for these sorts of things, even if he’s bound to turn up in the Marvel franchise one of these days. Both Watson and Mescal star in God’s Creatures, so it’s double kitemarked, you could say. It’s a tough watch, and a tense watch, but it’s powerfully affecting and plainly quality through and through. It asks: mothers will always instinctively protect their sons, but is that sometimes misguided?

Written by Shane Cowley and co-directed by Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer, the film is set in a small coastal village in Ireland at an undetermined time, although, purely from the look of the cars it’s possibly the 1990s. This is a community that’s close-knit, which is both a blessing and a curse, and a place where men and women know their roles. The men are out on their fishing boats all day while the women cook, clean, raise children and work in the fish-processing factory. Aileen (Watson), a supervisor at the factory who is obviously well-liked and respected, is thrilled when her son, Brian (Mescal), suddenly returns home from Australia unannounced. He simply walks into the pub during a wake and because Watson is Watson her character doesn’t have to say anything for us to know she is overjoyed. We can see it in her face, which is like a flower turning towards the sun. Even though she has a daughter, Erin (Toni O’Rourke), we understand instantly that he is the apple of her eye and has possibly been spoiled.