Ever since Cillian Murphy's richly deserved Oscar win for his performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's atomic epic Oppenheimer, we've been eager to see what the Douglas born actor has up his sleeve next. But whilst Murphy most recently lent his voice to animated offering Kensuke's Kingdom, and will soon be seen in Steven Knight's soon-shooting Peaky Blinders movie, his next on-screen appearance is set to come in Small Things Like These, Tim Mielants' upcoming adaptation of Claire Keegan's best-selling novel about Catholic corruption in small-town Ireland. In the movie, Murphy — given a rare opportunity to work in his natural Irish brogue — plays Bill Furlong, a father whose repressed trauma surfaces when he discovers disturbing secrets being kept by his local convent. And you can check out the first trailer for the drama below:
Inspired by the real history of the Magdalene Laundries, a set of workhouses and asylums used by the Catholic Church to physically and mentally abuse so-called "fallen women", it's clear to see from this first look at Small Things Like These alone that Murphy is operating in a register that's a far cry from Oppenheimer here. Quiet, insular, and soft-spoken, Furlong cuts a forlorn figure as we see shots of him working in the coal mines, almost disappearing into his surroundings, before his discovery of abuse in his rural community pushes him to confront his own clearly painful past and contemplate upsetting the town's status quo by speaking out. It doesn't look like one for the faint-hearted, that's for sure, but — to use a popular phrase — the whole thing feels incredibly locked-in, with Murphy right at the movie's core.
Also among the film's impressive ensemble are Eileen Walsh as Bill's wife Eileen, Michelle Fairley as Mrs. Wilson, Clare Dunne as Sister Carmel, and Emily Watson as Sister Mary, who appears to be a key figure in the all-the-way-to-the-top corruption Furlong comes up against. We'll see whether Bill heeds his wife's warning to "stay on the right side of people" or not when Small Things Like These hits cinemas in UK and Ireland on 1 November.