God’s Creatures, the new film from distributor A24, is a finely made, emotionally affecting work. By its end, you will be quietly shaken to your core. The patience and restraint with which co-directors Anna Rose Holmer and Saela Davis (The Fits) use in divulging its small plot’s dramatics make for an impactful ending that will force you to confront both your personal ethics and your place within the larger world.

Related: ‘The Fits’ Proves That Creativity in the Film Industry is Not Dead

Stormy Clouds Ahead

The story takes place on the Irish coast. Constantly cloud-filled skies and stormy seas make for tough living conditions. It’s what gives the townspeople their steadfast resolve to face life’s many harsh realities.

These blue-collar workers–all of whom either fish the open seas or clean that day’s catches–are tough. They’re without many words, quietly committed to the immediacy of the job at hand.

Sharing small-town gossip or a cigarette break provides simple relief from an otherwise droll day. Maybe singing a traditional Irish song or having a pint or two after work.

The flip side of this life is the danger that’s also near. An unexpected sea change at any moment can claim the life of any unsuspecting fisherman. Call it hazards of the job.

The relentless, merciless routines of life are what keep these people–and generations of families– humble, as well as religiously devout (cross-holding Catholics). You know your place in life and live out the joylessly familiar, unchanging seasons that always repeat.

That is, until whispers of an allegedly shocking event in the community begin to transpire, which slowly frays the fabric of everyone’s lives forever.

A Slowly Unfurling Story

God’s Creatures has a fairly simple plot. When a mother’s (Emily Watson) son (Paul Mescal) unexpectedly comes home after many years away, only to coincide with new rumors of a supposedly dark event that took place, Aileen (Watson) reckons with protecting her son or the acknowledging of a possibly dark truth.

Without giving away any details of the act in question (which the movie mysteriously teases), the film takes us on an emotional journey that tracks the stress of guilt on Aileen’s soul, as she struggles to feign ignorance of stories that make Brian (Mescal) out to be a perpetrator of a gruesome act.

Conversations that once flowed cheerfully between Aileen and her colleagues at the fishery grow short and sparse. Soon, silences and purposefully diverted eyes begin to ostracize Aileen, making for a tense emotional journey that grows heavier as the film goes on.

It’s a plot that may be simple in structure, but the way that co-directors Holmer and Davis tell it is very impressive. The measured way in which information is slowly learned–ultimately revealing a picture that grows unnervingly clearer (aligning with the inevitable weakening of Aileen’s own chosen ignorance)–is excellent filmmaking.

Moreover, connecting the small human drama to the larger universal level is where the film reaches another point of acclaim. Credit editors Jeanne Applegate and Julia Bloch for attuning the audience’s senses to the rhythms of life, where imagery of a bottomless sea feels suffocating, and the windswept swaying of seagulls in the sky show what freedom and relief must feel like.

God-fearing Creatures

Starring in the film are Emily Watson (born and raised in London), and Paul Mescal (an Ireland native), who here play a mother and son. Both are exceptionally fine actors, able to convey cavernously deep emotional inner depths.

Watson is the film’s central character and the film’s emotional center. The story’s suspense essentially hinges on Waton’s face, in which we know where we’re at in the movie by the emotions she chooses to hide and reveal. Watson’s performance is exceptional.

Mescal–whose work I personally haven’t been too familiar with (no, I haven’t yet watched the acclaimed series Normal People)–is quickly proving to be a star in this “A24 indie drama” space. It’s thrilling that Mescal’s talents align with his interest in being in more serious, smaller arthouse fare (he also captivated me in the soon-to-be-released drama, Aftersun).

There’s one person I haven’t mentioned yet, and she’s who actually cements the entire film. And that’s Aisling Franciosi, who here plays Sarah Murphy. While Watson and Mescal convey mysterious uncertainties with their performances, Franciosi’s performance–that of a young woman who is allegedly assaulted–is the most wide-ranging. She inhabits every part of this young, pure-hearted small-town girl, whose singing voice feels like a sliver of beauty and hope; a port in an otherwise dark storm.

Directors Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer have succeeded in their second feature film, God’s Creatures, connecting a small human drama to the larger forces of life. In the end, the takeaway is two-fold: we see how painful and harrowing life can be. But sometimes, if we’re able to survive and confront our personal storms, we can write ourselves a new life.

1h 40m. ‘God’s Creatures’ is rated R for language.