Herself
Directed by: Phyllida Lloyd
Written by: Clare Dunne and Malcolm Campbell
Starring: Clare Dunne, Harriet Walter, Conleth Hill, Ian-Lloyd Anderson, Rube Rose O'Hara, Molly McCann
Drama - 97 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 5 Jan 2020
Written by: Clare Dunne and Malcolm Campbell
Starring: Clare Dunne, Harriet Walter, Conleth Hill, Ian-Lloyd Anderson, Rube Rose O'Hara, Molly McCann
Drama - 97 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 5 Jan 2020
Sandra (Clare Dunne, Spider-Man: Far From Home) is taking agency. She absorbs what is being done to her, both from her abusive husband and the bureaucratic system meant to shepherd her through this tough time, and adapts to face the problem on her own terms. Using one of her daughter’s children’s tales as inspiration, Sandra brainstorms a creative way to not necessarily fight back, but side-step the obstacles. Sandra’s problems are not unique to our times. You would be hard pressed to find women in any year of any decade who could not empathize with her situation. However, one need not be a battered wife to appreciate Herself and the story it tells; however, you should probably be able to imagine walking in someone else’s shoes and avoid victim blaming questions like, “Why didn’t you get out sooner?”
Sandra’s unique solution to provide permanence for herself and her two young girls is to build their own house. The Dublin Council has them living in an airport hotel far away from the girls’ school and Sandra’s multiple jobs making them perpetually late for everything. Apparently, Dublin is like every other city on Earth; there is a severe shortage of affordable housing. Stumbling on an Internet video where a man builds his own home using materials you can purchase at the local hardware store for a relatively non-stomach churning amount of coin inspires Sandra. Why not me she asks?
Sandra’s unique solution to provide permanence for herself and her two young girls is to build their own house. The Dublin Council has them living in an airport hotel far away from the girls’ school and Sandra’s multiple jobs making them perpetually late for everything. Apparently, Dublin is like every other city on Earth; there is a severe shortage of affordable housing. Stumbling on an Internet video where a man builds his own home using materials you can purchase at the local hardware store for a relatively non-stomach churning amount of coin inspires Sandra. Why not me she asks?
Phyllida Lloyd, the director behind a flippant “who’s my daddy?” Abba musical (Mamma Mia!) and a cinematic genuflection to a conservative British Prime Minister (The Iron Lady), tackles how ‘the system’ stymies the efforts of a battered wife and mother to care for her children. Building a house may change Sandra’s situation and deny her government benefits she desperately requires. Her husband (Ian Lloyd Anderson) promises change, but usually resorts to intimidation tactics to show his love and understanding. An early abuse scene which shatters an idyllic moment between Sandra and the girls and jarring the audience out of any domestic pretensions is severely unpleasant.
Dunne also co-wrote the script basing the idea on a real-life situation a friend from Dublin was enduring at the time. An impossibly expensive housing market prices out the most vulnerable. This is ripe material for a what-if proposal. Sandra enlists friends to donate their weekends and hires a local contractor (Conleth Hill, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) who takes a lot of convincing to get involved in some silly girl’s fantasy backyard dream house. Backyard is literal since Sandra will build her abode behind her employer’s far more stately home. Sandra is a cleaner and carer for a wealthy doctor just back from Africa after an accident.
Here is where Herself loses some ‘do-it-yourself’ plucky attitude. While Dunne’s script and Lloyd’s direction preach a ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’ ethos, what you do need, other than blueprints, are external benefactors to fall out of the sky. The doctor (Harriet Walter, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens) gifts Sandra both the land and the loan to get the project going. If there were no doctor with a heart of gold, Sandra’s situation would be on the fast track to nowhere. Also, the handheld camera work is off-putting; no Steadycam here. What may be Lloyd’s intention for organic familiarity comes off haphazard and scattershot. The editing is also a bit punch-drunk, especially during more active sequences like a child getting a boo boo on her arm. The choices are downright perplexing. Yet, Dunne’s strong and earnest performance shines through and she peddles a strong theme, you don’t have to let your current circumstances define and confine you…all you need is a Fairy Godmother benefactor with a large backyard and generous loan terms.
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