The Secret Scripture

I found this film to be all that i hoped it would be. It was thought provoking, with brilliant acting from all the main characters. People today will find it hard to understand that these things really could, and did happen, because it took place in an era of "Non Politically Correctness". Although I agree that it does stray somewhat from the Books original story-line, it does not detract in anyway what the Author was trying to convey. Well done to a film that uses no Mirrors or Special Effects, but relies solely on a Good Author and an excellent cast.

This is a sweeping romantic drama that goes back and forth in time between the present with an old woman in an asylum and her younger self in "neutral" Ireland during WW2. Even though there is a clearly fictional quality to the story, the themes of the Irish conflict feel very real. Rooney Mara is eminently watchable. You can really believe her beauty is enough to drive the men in the small town to distraction. She really acts well here - wish she had more good roles. Theo James plays the villain, a lecherous priest. His face is actually quite suited to the cruel character - he should play villains more in the future. Eric Bana should be on screen more. Vanessa Redgrave wouldn't act in a mediocre movie. One fault is a lot of non Irish actors speaking with accents - need subtitles sometimes. This movie is saved by a good ending. A nice old fashioned ending that is feel good and doesn't leave you hanging.

An elderly woman with an enigmatic past pines her days away in an asylum, until a doctor begins investigating her case and ultimately gives them both a second chance at life in The Secret Scripture (2016). It is a romantic tale filmed on location in Ireland and is one of those films audiences seemed to like but critics panned. Beautiful cinematography and emotional depth masks an otherwise a ridiculous plot. The Secret Scripture is based on a novel of the same name by Sebastian Barry, author of A Long Long Way (2005). It was released in Canada and the U.K. in 2016 but came to the U.S. in October of this year. It was adapted for the screen and directed by Jim Sheridan, who also directed My Left Foot (1989) and The Boxer (1997). Both Sebastian Barry and Jim Sheridan were born in Dublin and have focused their careers on highlighting the Irish experience. The film centers on Roseanne McNulty (Vanessa Redgrave), an elderly woman in a mental institution who allegedly murdered her child. Dr. William Grene (Eric Bana) comes to evaluate Rose to see if she is sane enough to live on her own, because the institution is being remodeled into a spa. Dr. Grene becomes fascinated with her life story after discovering a journal she's kept, written on the pages of a Bible. As a young woman, Rose (Rooney Mara) lives in Belfast with her sweetheart, Michael McNulty (Jack Reynor). He leaves to join the British air force during World War 2. She moves to the Irish countryside to escape the German bombing raids, only to run afoul of local conventions. After being exiled from her aunt's cafe to an isolated cottage, Michael just so happens to be shot down in her backyard and she hides him from Irish partisans. The local priest, Father Gaunt (Theo James), is smitten with Rose and becomes enraged when he sees her with Michael. He recommends she be confined in the local mental hospital. Michael and Rose marry, but no one believes her because he fled the Irish partisans and was later killed. I guess the church where they got married didn't keep a registry. After breaking out of the asylum, she swims away only to be washed ashore, where she gives birth and it's implied she smashes her newborn with a rock. In a twist ending, however, this recollection of events is revealed to be inaccurate and in fact Dr. Grene is Rose's long-lost son, who was taken shortly after birth. Gaunt, now an Archbishop, was the man who requested Grene go to the asylum. Eric Bana, who played Hector in Troy (2004) and Nero in Star Trek (2009), is a bright spot in the film. His interaction with veteran actress Vanessa Redgrave saves it from being truly unbearable. Together, they add a touch of humanity in sea of melancholy, sullen, and otherwise cold and reptilian characters. It's a tearjerker for sure, but The Secret Scripture is one step away from a Lifetime Original Movie. It's one of those silly romantic tales filled with unlikely coincidences, picturesque scenery, and a taciturn heroine who for some reason drives every man she meets wild. I'm not sure if the movie is deliberately anti-Catholic, but it plays on old stereotypes of the Church silencing rebellious women in mental hospitals and covering up scandal. Definitely meant for the wine and chocolate crowd.

I came upon this movie by accident, I had never heard of this movie so I looked it up and read some of the reviews and a lot of them were excellent and some were not so good so I decided to watch it and give it a chance. This movie was so touching. I could totally see this happening back then when the story line had taking place. I cried at the end of the movie. It touched my heart. I would totally suggest you watch it.

An intriguing story, great acting, some things could have surely been better, but overall it's more than just a good movie, much better than one could tell from it's imdb 6.7 rating

Why does the Irish Film Board finance such a biased movie? Protestant Rose is the woman every man wants, even the catholic priest! And the Catholics are all savages who commit atrocious crimes that go unpunished. Rooney is absolutely forgettable, and for me it's got one of the saddest ugliest soundtracks I've ever heard. And why are all the actors faking the accent, are there no good actors in Ireland? I watched till the end even though the plot was appalling, just because I love Ireland. The only plus side to this movie is that it is a reminder of how much has already been accomplished as to the troubles and the hatred in between the two groups. May we continue to make life on earth better.

Although "The Secret Scripture" was based on the Sebastian Barry novel, the film has the feel of real historical drama set in Ireland in the mid-twentieth century. The expansive story covers the period of 1942-92, and the focus is on the horrific experience of a woman trapped in the religious strife and the sick morality of the age. The film proceeds with flashbacks as Rose McNulty has spent a half century in the barbaric Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital where she was incarcerated primarily through a letter of condemnation written by a priest, who accused her of "nymphomania" in the mid-1940s. By the 1990s, even the clinicians are unsure about how to spell the archaic word nymphomania. But in the 1940s, in the small town of Ballytivnan in County Slligo, young Rose was instructed not to even look a man in the eyes, due to the Victorian morals of the age. The priest who condemned her to hell in the asylum lusted after her, and when she refused his advances, he retaliated with a vengeance. Rose was formally married, but the cruel staff of the asylum did not bother to check the records. While her husband Michael was eventually killed in militant Irish religious schism, Rose delivered his child while leading a life of agony in the asylum. The film develops a melodramatic plot about what happened to the child after Rose made a daring escape and gave birth to a baby boy on the beach. One of the great strengths of the film is the sublime acting of Rooney Mara and Vanessa Redgrave as the young and elderly Rose McNulty. For fifty years, Rose has kept a kind of diary through scribbling notes and drawing pictures in her Bible. Her musings form the "secret" scripture of the film's title. The cinematography was breathtaking with the Irish landscape and the tides that momentarily portend a possible escape for Rose. But even that brief ray of hope is denied her. It is difficult to imaging more cruelty to a human being than the destiny of Rose McNultry. The film raised awareness about just how cruel human beings can be to one another, with the flagrant hypocrisy of morality, religion, and war serving as a smokescreen for the deeper and more troubling aspects of human nature.

This movie should have been an utter tearjerker from start to finish and it was just nothing. Maybe it's Rooney Mara, who is more like a cold fish than a romantic heroine, maybe it's the direction, which was uninvolving, plodding and workmanlike, and maybe it's just the look of the film, which was colorless and ugly. I also could not see tiny Mara aging into huge Redgrave, but I could have easily accepted that if the film had engaged me in any way it should have. There was just no passion in this film at all, and most likely with a different director and a tighter script it would have been a classic tragic love story, instead of just a boring, forgettable waste of time. I gave it four stars just for the story, but the film really deserves far less.

I saw this movie yesterday..i am no critic i just saying my opinion... This could be a grate movie..but it was burnt to the ground...or in other words it was saved by the astonishing performance of the actors.First of all the plot has many gaps,the story alone could have help the director to put many more scenes into the movie to make it more interesting to the public. The surroundings are beautiful but its not enough. The Secret Scripture (by the way the title of the movie) was not focused. it could have been shown that the old lady was indeed changing the books phrases so that no one could read it except her, showing that she was more capable and smart,instead of a left alone crazy woman abandoned in a sanatorium .The scenes with the priest could have been more analytic as far as how and why did he grow this maniac jealous attitude about her.Even the love that she has for the young guy could have been more deeply shown. The fact that the doctor is interested about this woman past and suddenly out of nowhere when he had a conversation with the nurse about his family realizes that the birth dates of him and the old crazy woman matches and then he understands that its his mother,it is just a big hilarious fail.The hole movie was like pieces of different scene materials put it all together just to make a movie. In my opinion again this could have been a great movie,like a mix of The notebook with the Pearl Harbor combined.

I'm not going to explain the story, that has been done in other reviews. What I do want to say is this The end of this movie brought tears to my eyes, and literally almost broke me, because I have experienced something similar. No, I didn't live in a mental institution all my life, but the pain and heartache is the same, it's excruciating, at the loss of a lover, a family member (including pets), and especially the loss of your child. At the same time the movie brought pain, it also brought healing. Many movies can be confusing at first, and some stay that way until the very end. This was not confusing at all, you just needed to follow along, and know that eventually that everything will be clear and fit into place. An awesome movie, exceptional acting, and the music is beautiful, especially the end title "The Cry Inside," written by Brian Byrne and performed by Kelly Clarkson. It was absolutely gorgeous, a masterpiece. Listening to it, and paying attention to the lyrics, is what finally broke me...I sobbed "The Cry Inside" never goes away. Rose Kennedy explained it as follows ~ "It has been said, 'time heals all wounds,' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."