Herself: Film Review

Cast: Clare Dunne, Harriet Walter, Conleith Hill, Ian Lloyd Anderson

Director: Phyllida Lloyd

Opening with a shocking moment that turns on a knife and closing with a similar gut punch, it's hard to believe that Herself is an inspirational film.

But it is - and it's one that's definitely worth diving into, despite the potentially troubling material within.

A mesmerising yet grounded Clare Dunne is Sandra in this cinematic parable of resilience about escaping the vicious hold of domestic violence. When she's viciously beaten by husband Gary (an insidious performance from Anderson), she flees the relationship with her two daughters. 

Running between cleaning jobs and trying to make ends meet, Sandra is gifted land on a family client's home, and decides to build a home and a new life for herself and her children. But the closer her dream becomes to reality, the more the trauma of what's occurred builds up around her...

Herself is trying to be an inspirational film, and a non-preachy affair about the perils of domestic violence.

However, in doing so, it never once loses sight that it's the small things that collectively build to a crescendo of self-belief and empowerment that's been built on fragile foundations.

Dunne is superb throughout, giving her struggle a face that's to be admired, never pitied and a protagonist whose journey you believe in from the very beginning. Mixed in with the passionate power of some galvanising speeches, such as one extremely strong one about why abused women are always asked why they stay and the men are never asked why they don't stop, Herself had the potential to tip into the treacle and fall into the mire.

Not once does it, despite its almost Ken Loachian I'm Daniel Blake overtones - and as a result, it's a powerful compelling piece of human drama that restores faith in what people can do, for good and for bad.

There's a huge heart in Herself, that helps fight off the blackness and ugliness within. It's a journey worth taking, and don't be surprised if the light you see at the end of the tunnel follows you out of the cinema as well.