While the early buzz on the Rooney Mara-starring The Secret Scripture hasn’t reached the kind of awards-worthy levels as last year’s Brooklyn, the Irish period drama from director Jim Sheridan certainly comes with a stellar cast – most of whom seem to be softening their Ts and ignoring their Hs as they come to terms with the Irish brogue.
The film, adapted from Irish author Sebastian Barry’s Man Booker Prize-nominated novel of the same name, tells the story of Roseanne McNulty, an elderly woman played by Vanessa Redgrave, who has spent the last 50 years of her life in an Irish psychiatric hospital. When she begins to receive care from a new doctor (Eric Bana), she starts to tell him about her past as a young woman (played by Mara), caught in a love triangle between a fighter pilot (Jack Reynor) and a local priest (Theo James), the results of which weigh heavy on the rest of their lives.
With six Oscar nominations to his name, Sheridan has assembled a supporting cast of Irish character actors, including Poldark’s Aidan Turner, Tom Vaughn-Lawlor of Love/Hate, and Nika McGuigan, recently seen in RTÉ 2’s Can’t Cope/Won’t Cope.
While the film was met with mixed reactions at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, it is expected to make its debut in Ireland at the Audi Dublin International Film Festival in February. Take a look at the trailer below:
