The Magdalene Sisters



The Magdalene Sisters is an Irish drama film directed by Peter Mullen. It was inspired by the documentary Sex In A Cold Climate and delves into one of the darker parts of Ireland's history - the Magdalene laundries. The laundries were originally established in Victorian times as a place to shelter women deemed "fallen" by society and they eventually evolved into places where any woman who was deemed corrupt by the Church was sent there for the rest of her life. The women were put to work in the laundries and kept under the supervision of nuns who punished them cruelly. The only way to leave the laundry was for two men over 18 to sign the woman out.

This film follows four women in one of the laundries in the 1960s. We have Margaret, a woman raped by her cousin at a wedding and sent there because she is no longer a virgin. There's Rose who has just had a baby out of wedlock, being forced to put him up for adoption before being sent away. Bernadette is a teenage orphan sent to the laundry because she was thought to be too flirtatious with some of the local boys and, unlike the other girls, she is still a virgin. There's Crispina, sent to the laundry years ago for having a baby out of wedlock and is now quite unstable. The entire laundry is run by the malevolent Sister Bridget.


 * The Alcatraz: Subverted. The laundry is easily accessible and on the edge of a town. The girls are only kept in their room with a chair in front of the door (though they do eventually fit a lock on it). There's even a back gate, but the girls are kept in there through Stockholm Syndrome and the knowledge that the world wouldn't accept them if they did escape.
 * All Men Are Perverts: Sister Bridget believes this, claiming that Bernadette was sent to the laundry to avoid tempting men because of her looks.
 * Amulet of Dependency: Crispina's St Christopher medal. She believes it helps her communicate with her son.
 * Beautiful All Along:  The difference in Rose is startling.
 * Beauty Is Bad: Discussed by Bernadette and two little girls. Bernadette theorises that since the Virgin Mary is beautiful then it's not a sin. She then says it's a sin to be vain.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sister Bridget. To the world she's a kindly elderly lady while to the girls she's the devil.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Blonde Brunette Redhead: Blonde Rose, dark brown Bernadette, reddish-brown Margaret and black haired Crispina. There's also a red haired girl whose name is never mentioned.
 * Break the Cutie: Rose. Crispina is already broken at this point.
 * Break the Haughty: Sister Bridget tries to do this to Bernadette.
 * By the Hair: Our introduction to Una is her father dragging her back into the dormitory by her hair.
 * Call Back: Their first night in the laundry, Bernadette and Rose talk in the bathroom. When they are in the same place again.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The key to the safe.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: Bernadette mentions she has a cousin who's a hairdresser..
 * Similarly Margaret's brother is in one scene at the start but then reappears.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: The girls in the laundry all wear the same drab green uniform, the nuns all wear black and the girls wear blue whenever they are out in the town.
 * Crapsack World: The laundry and really the entire country when you consider that there were dozens more.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: Played with. Una's family disown her so she ends up taking vows to become a nun herself.
 * Designated Hero: Margaret slips into this a few times. She does have some sympathy, taking Crispina under her wing. But when she finds out Bernadette took Crispina's St Christopher medal she physically attacks her and is enraged the other girls don't join in. She even yells at Crispina for not being mad at Bernadette, Crispina only being glad that the medal was found. And when her brother signs her out she doesn't thank him at all and yells "you didn't bloody grow up fast enough!" while also practically rubbing it in the other girls' faces that she's leaving.
 * Driven to Suicide: Crispina after she loses her St Christopher medal. She sleeps on wet sheets to make herself sick and tries to hang herself in the dormitory.
 * Expository Hairstyle Change: Bernadette gets her hair cut off by sister Bridget and then a montage is shown, by the end of it Bernadette's hair has grown back. After  it is even longer. Una's hair also grows back.
 * Fan Disservice: The nuns make all the girls strip off their clothes and perform exercises while they judge who has the biggest breasts, hairiest area and other unpleasant things. Also the priest stripping naked in the middle of a sermon.
 * I Have No Daughter: Una's father tells her this before he abandons her in the laundry.
 * Ironic Nickname: Crispina means "girl with the curly hair" and Crispina's hair isn't curly.
 * The nuns gave her the name Crispina; it's not her real name. And they're not talking about the hair on her head...
 * Hair of Gold: Rose
 * Humiliation Conga: An example that turns sour halfway through. The priest gets poison oak put in his clothes by Margaret. The itching kicks in during a public sermon and he strips off his clothes and runs off into town. It then turns out Crispina has the same rashes on her thighs, revealing she was molested.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Bernadette, especially notable when Katy dies and she abandons her frosty attitude for a moment, kissing her on the forehead.
 * Jerkass Woobie: Bernadette. You can understand her frosty attitude when you consider she's an orphan and only been sent there because she talked to boys too much. Add that to the crap she has to go through in the laundry and you still want to hug her even when she's snapping at people. Margaret attempts to be this but the Jerkass part cancels out everything else.
 * Karma Houdini: Margaret's cousin rapes her and she ends up being punished. Granted we never find out what happened to him but it still fits this trope. Sister Bridget also likely stayed at the laundry and kept running it the same way for years.
 * Kick the Dog: Sister Bridget loves to do this. She laughs cruelly at Una as she tries to pick up her cut off hair. Also she hits Rose when she asks if she can send a birthday card to her son.
 * Kissing Cousins: Margaret and Kevin at the start, though Margaret is extremely squicked out when it happens.
 * Money, Dear Boy: Sister Bridget lets  when Rose gives her the key to the safe with all the laundry's money in it.
 * Mood Whiplash: The humourous scene of the Parish priest stripping off and running away naked because Margaret put poison oak in his clothes takes a sharp u-turn when.
 * Oh Crap: Margaret when she sees her sister telling her father that she's just been raped. Bernadette when the nuns discover her trying to escape.
 * Oireland: Averted with a cast of Irish actors though the woman Katy slips into this, attacking her "o"s and "u"s rather fiercely.
 * One Steve Limit: Sister Bridget enforces this. There's already a Rose in the laundry so Sister Bridget forces everyone to call Rose Patricia (her middle name). Crispina's real name is Harriett so this may apply to her as well.
 * Parental Abandonment: And how. Rose's mother won't even speak to her when she's had her baby, Margaret's father sends her away and Una's father drags her back into the laundry by her hair when she escapes, saying she has no family left.
 * Pet the Dog: At Christmas all the girls in the laundry are allowed to watch a film (though most of them are bored by it) and they also each get an orange laid on their bed.
 * Really Gets Around: Bernadette is implied to be this, flirting with a few local boys, but it turns out she's still a virgin.
 * Shaking Her Hair Loose: Bernadette.
 * She Cleans Up Nicely:.
 * Sinister Minister: The Parish priest turns out to be molesting Crispina.
 * So Beautiful It's a Curse
 * Stepford Smiler: Sister Bridget is a type C while all the girls in the laundry are type As, most visible when they walk through town smiling to onlookers.
 * The Dog Bites Back: When the nuns were abusing the poor girls they obviously didn't bank on.
 * Traumatic Haircut: This is the punishment for trying to escape the laundry. Happens to Una and later Bernadette.
 * What Happened to The Mouse?: Brendan is last seen driving away in the back of the delivery van, with no explanation of what happened to him.
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue
 * The Woobie: Rose and Crispina, mothers of children they were forced to give up. Crispina only ever got to see her son from a distance at the laundry gates and Rose.