This 2022 film was only Paul Mescal's second film after his TV success in Normal People. Its a small scale independent movie. The story centering around a small Irish fishing community, that survives on oyster farming and processing. Aileen ( Emily Watson) works as the floor manager in the villages only employer a seafood and fish processing plant. One day her son Brian (Paul Mescal) returns unexpectedly to the village after disappearing many years before. No one talks of why, and he evades answering questions how he survived in Australia. There had been a major falling out between Brian and his Father Con, which lingers on still on his return. What he did to deserve this is never really spoken of, but its an unresolved wound none the less. Aileen tries to help set him up as an oyster farmer, by stealing nets of oysters for him. But he also starts stealing other fisherman's catches and selling them, which if found out would bring down the law upon him, and ruin the families reputation in the village. He appears also to want to rekindle his relationship with his teenage love Sarah. She accuses him of rape, and Aileen lies that he was at home in order to protect him. But the burden of guilt at doing this begins to eat away at her.
This is entirely Emily Watson's film, she emotionally dominates every frame of it. Mescal's ability to exude charm, is effectively backlit by the growing sense through out the film, that he has a bad reputation and is a lot nastier a person than he presents himself to be. Both performances greatly elevate this film way above what it might otherwise have achieved. God's Creatures is a powerfully taught and gritty drama, depicting lives lived hovering along the edge of poverty, in a wildly hostile and unforgiving landscape.
CARROT REVIEW - 5/8
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