Cillian Murphy takes on Catholic Church secrets in new movie 'Small Things Like These'

As the title character in "Oppenheimer," Cillian Murphy was at the center of existential questions about death and destiny as physicists raced to develop the atomic bomb in a quest to end World War II.

In his latest film, "Small Things Like These" (in theaters Friday), Murphy is at war with himself.

Based on the Orwell Prize-winning novel inspired by true events, "Small Things" is set in 1980s Ireland at a time when the Catholic Church wields absolute power over the faithful. When taciturn coal and timber merchant Bill Furlong (Murphy) discovers a sobbing girl being held captive by nuns because she's pregnant and unmarried, he is caught between a desire to help and a fear of being shunned by his community.

"This is a very familiar type to me, the silent Irish male who is a deep thinker," says Murphy, 48, himself a thoughtful, introspective presence. "In the novel, it says Bill walks with his eyes toward the ground and he finds it difficult to make eye contact with people. I know that type of Irishman."

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Murphy says serendipity was involved in bringing "Small Things" to the big screen. He had been looking for a project that would allow him to collaborate with Belgian director Tim Mielants, whom he had met while filming his popular Netflix series "Peaky Blinders."

When Murphy's wife Yvonne McGuinness suggested the 2021 Claire Keegan book, a resonant bestseller, he was stunned to find the rights available.

"It was a miracle in a way, and meant to be," says Murphy. "It had already become a modern classic in Ireland, everyone it seems had read it. But we knew if we were going to do it, it had to have the same space and tone the book has. It needed to be a quiet film."

That it is. If you wonder what it feels like to live in a small Irish village that almost seems stuck in time, surrounded by good people who are all cowed by local Catholic officials, watch "Small Things." Murphy's character is painfully reserved, and the actor's restrained performance captures how the church kept locals silent as they hid pregnant girls brought to them by embarrassed parents.

Director Mielants also felt a personal pull to the story, although he declines to elaborate. "I will say there's a theme of grief that comes back to me a lot, and I like investigating that," he says. "In a way, it's like going through my own personal trauma, beat by beat, together with Cillian. With the Catholic Church, there's always this sense that if you're silent, you're complicit."

Mielants adds that Belgian Catholic officials have also been accused of coercing women to give up their children for adoption. But the practice in Ireland has gained the most notoriety as revelations suggested many young women lived and died within the confines of what essentially was their church imprisonment.

What were the Magdalene Laundries?

In 1993, a mass grave was discovered on the site of a convent laundry just north of Dublin, touching off a scandal now known as the Magdalene Laundries. For more than 100 years, so-called fallen women were brought to church officials across the country to be rehabilitated through forced labor, with their children given up for adoption.

In many such Irish towns, locals who suspected anything largely stayed mum. Mielants says he was eager to have his star "explore the depth that silence can have. You get the denial, the anger, the paranoia and the acceptance. You see the tip of that iceberg, but it's what's underneath that is so layered."

Murphy brings an intensity to this role that recalls equally striking performances from fellow Irish actors, including Barry Keoghan ("The Banshees of Inisherin"), Saoirse Ronan ("Lady Bird"), Colin Farrell ("In Bruges") and, of course, three-time Oscar winner, Daniel Day-Lewis ("Lincoln").

So what's in the Irish water that turns out such stars?

Murphy just laughs. "I get asked that often, and I don't have an answer," he says softly. But he does have an explanation of sorts.

"Have you been to a small pub in a small town in Ireland? If you have, you know that it's a place where people are there just telling stories, and who we are as a people is talking through story," he says. "I'm sure that has to do with the church, with being colonized, with the hardships of the famine and emigration.

"I don't know the answer to your question. But I do know we're good at story."