by Amanda Webster

Year:  2023

Director:  Patricia Kelly

Release:  19 October (Sydney), 26 October (Melbourne), 2 November (Perth), 16 November (Brisbane), 23 November (Canberra),

Running time: 95 minutes

Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Irish Film Festival

Cast:
Geraldine McAlinden, Maya O’Shea, Michael James Ford and Killian Filan

Intro:
... highlights the issue of domestic violence but concludes with hope and optimism that having someone believe in you can give you the confidence to change your life.

Verdigris is a blueish-green toxic coating that forms when copper corrodes. The ‘Green of Greece’ has long been associated with rebirth and renewal. Ancient Egyptians would grind the copper-based mineral malachite to create green pigment, symbolising life, growth, and the afterlife. While the lead characters in the film are similarly transformed and weathered under toxic conditions, the story’s throughline of growth and renewal is more uplifting.

The debut feature from writer/director Patricia Kelly depicts the progression of Marian (Geraldine McAlinden) from timid, naïve, middle-class housewife abased by her cruel and controlling husband Nigel (Michael James Ford), toward independence and empowerment. It’s also the story of an unlikely friendship with teenager Jewel (Maya O’Shea), a street smart and hardnosed pragmatist who has been living alone since her mother abandoned her at twelve and is making ends meet by whatever means necessary.

Patricia Kelly, ‘passionate about amplifying marginalised voices’, illuminates, in Verdigris, the lived experience of someone under the influence of coercive control, power discrepancies and the challenges faced by those living in disadvantaged and disenfranchised communities.

Denied children by her husband, Marian is faced with the emptiness of her life post-retirement. Nigel is dismissive, condescending and critical; his persistent gaslighting chips away at Marian’s confidence and self-worth, stripping her agency. His refusal to let her take up any space in his life or even her own house – to be seen and heard – is poignantly conveyed in the film by a dining room table taken up with his miniature battle replica models.

Relegated to a stool at the room’s periphery, Marian must eat awkwardly, balancing a plate on her knee. Each day, her subversive act of defiance is taking one of Nigel’s models to dispose of or subtly vandalise. Her defiance becomes more resolute when, against Nigel’s instruction, Marian takes a part-time job as a census enumerator.

The job is a catalyst for finding purpose and independence and breaking free from Nigel’s control. She offers to take a route in a less desirable area to keep Nigel from discovering her secret and is assigned to a tough inner city location where she meets Jewel. While the genesis of their relationship is a little contrived, they gradually form a sincere bond. Both characters possess a plurality of strength and vulnerability and have more in common than they initially realise.

Judgmental and prejudiced by age and class, they discover they each have something to teach the other. Jewel helps reveal things to Marian she was previously unable to see –her right to access what’s hers, her self-worth. Jewel’s strength and independence inspire Marian to advocate for herself. At the same time, Marian’s motherly concern, nurturing her skills in the kitchen, softens Jewel’s tough exterior and helps dismantle her armour.

Set against the gritty backdrop of Dublin’s notoriously disadvantaged and marginalised north-east inner-city, the visual narrative is unfiltered realism, providing emotional resonance as characters experience violence, crime, and hardship.

The film builds tension as Nigel senses he is losing his grip on Marian. Needing to keep her mired in his misery, the film culminates with Nigel’s final and desperate act of aggression.

Verdigris highlights the issue of domestic violence but concludes with hope and optimism that having someone believe in you can give you the confidence to change your life.

8.5Great
score
8.5
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