Small Things Like These
Lionsgate | Release Date: November 8, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyNov 8, 2024
Keegan's writing is spare and controlled: she gets a lot done in 116 pages, and Walsh's adaptation captures the suggested interiority of the story. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 6, 2024
With Cillian Murphy’s quiet, almost small and yet grand performance carrying the story every step of the way, “Small Things Like These” is quite possibly the best movie I’ve seen so far this year. Read full review
100
iChristina NewlandNov 1, 2024
A beautifully simple story of moral courage in the face of complicity, Small Things Like These is one of the best films of the year. Read full review
91
IndieWireRachel ProngerFeb 15, 2024
Part of the power of Small Things Like These lies in its Trojan horse nature. This is a political allegory disguised as a character study, a reflection on national guilt and moral complicity, wrapped inside the experiences of one man, in one small town, standing in for the whole of Ireland, and possibly the world. Read full review
90
ColliderEmma KielyNov 7, 2024
It’s an electric, atmospheric, and deeply soulful look at what it means to be human, what it means to have empathy, and how faith should never come before people. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyFeb 15, 2024
It’s subtle but resonant, intimate but emotionally expansive and at every step crisply unsentimental. Read full review
87
Paste MagazineNadira BegumOct 25, 2024
Through this adaptation, Mielants mourns the lives lost to these institutions while simultaneously providing a timely reminder of the danger of passive complicity. Read full review
83
Original-CinKaren GordonNov 8, 2024
Cillian Murphy follows up his Oscar-winning role in the epic Oppenheimer with another brilliant performance in a much smaller and more intimate film, but one that also deals with questions about morality and responsibility. Read full review
83
The PlaylistRafaela Sales RossFeb 17, 2024
In this deliberately stunted teasing of information, Mielants builds a muted drama that cleverly harnesses horror tropes to paint a picture of what happens within the convent’s walls. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorFeb 15, 2024
With notable patience, Mielants (who directed Murphy in six episodes of Peaky Blinders) allows the darkness to gradually seep in. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraNov 13, 2024
A deliberate film that uses small moments to examine one of the great questions of our time: how good people let bad things happen, and how we might push back against the dark.   Read full review
80
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonNov 7, 2024
Murphy, fresh off his “Oppenheimer” Oscar win, is both producer and star of this film. His performance is unsurprisingly searing and nuanced, especially since Bill is not much of a talker. Read full review
80
The Daily BeastNick SchagerNov 5, 2024
The acclaimed star delivers a masterclass in silent expressiveness, and he proves the riveting axis around which Tim Mielants’ precise and deft feature revolves. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Xan BrooksNov 4, 2024
Small Things Like These casts a powerful spell. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyOct 31, 2024
In delicate movements, the miserabilism of Small Things Like These coalesces into a wonderfully understated seasonal catharsis. Read full review
80
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiOct 25, 2024
Mielants’ film does a lot with little dialogue, setting the stage for something rich and thought-provoking. Read full review
80
Total FilmJames MottramOct 7, 2024
Mielants, who brilliantly conjures a dank, oppressive mood (even a shot of childhood fave Danger Mouse on TV fails to lift the spirits) skilfully avoids any overwrought confrontations; the film’s understated power only grows as it goes on. Read full review
80
NMELou ThomasFeb 16, 2024
Its rich tone of regret, guilt and unspoken malice comes across in careful direction from Tim Mielants, Frank van den Eeden’s shadowy cinematography and subtle, measured performances across the board. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 16, 2024
It is an absorbing, committed drama. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyFeb 15, 2024
Keegan chose a man of few words to make his stand, and Murphy, very much the man of the moment, steps up to play him with a heroic understatement that could move mountains. Read full review
80
Time OutStephen A. RussellFeb 15, 2024
It’s a profound performance by Murphy – perhaps even more so in fewer words than Oppenheimer – as Bill’s anger burns with tragic urgency. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeFeb 15, 2024
It’s Murphy’s exquisitely pained performance, unclenching by fine degrees into something like grace, that gives Small Things Like These its eventual, fist-in-the-gut power, even as the film evades melodramatic confrontation to the last, ending elegantly at a point where many other stories might choose to begin. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyFeb 15, 2024
Murphy’s performance, Tim Mielants’s controlled direction and subtle emotional heft combine to make this low-key adaption of Claire Keegan’s Booker-nominated 2021 novella very much a proposition to be reckoned with. Read full review
80
TheWrapBen CrollFeb 15, 2024
Small Things Like Things is a modest gem. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonNov 7, 2024
This is a master class in quiet acting, one that’s hard to shake once the credits roll. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubBrianna ZiglerNov 6, 2024
Small Things Like These instead functions as a parable about how minor acts of kindness can be the strongest defense against powerlessness in the face of corruption. It’s a moral poignant in its simplicity, if also a bit lacking in how utterly uncomplicated and even expected it is. Read full review
70
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Saffron MaeveNov 7, 2024
In lieu of sensationalizing the persecution of these young women, Small Things Like These compellingly casts its gaze onto the complicity of the community and the social architectures which uphold abuse. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 5, 2024
You’d have to be passionately interested in the details of an Irish small town not to find “Small Things Like These” something of a slog. Read full review
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