Slow-burner packs an emotional punch

Rose Plays Julie (M, 100 mins) Directed by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy Reviewed by James Croot ★★★★

‘Ithink about you all the time. I wonder what kind of life you are leading. I imagine about meeting. Do you ever think about me?’’

Ever since she learned she was adopted, Rose O’Connell (Ann Skelly) has wanted to meet her birth mother. That feeling has intensified now she is essentially on her own and studying veterinary science in Dublin.

It’s while completing a module on euthanasia and working on her empathetic shed-side manner that, armed with her birth certificate (originally naming her as Julie) and a phone number, she decides to reach out.

‘‘I know you requested no contact, but I didn’t know what else to do,’’ she says, failing to really get any kind of response from the other end.

Even that setback fails to deter Rose. Claiming to be heading to London for a conference on epidemiology, her real purpose is to try to catch a glimpse of her birth mum Ellen (Orla Brady), either on the set of the period drama she is acting in, or at her country house, which is currently for sale.

But although Rose initially believes she has managed both undetected, Ellen senses something is off about the young woman, skulking in the shadows and clearly unable to afford their estate.

A confrontation leads to a reluctant conversation in a nearby forest and revelations that nobody else knows about her existence and, much to Rose’s dismay, that she was the result of an encounter that still haunts Ellen.

Writer-directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy have crafted a slow-burning thriller that is a triumph of mood-setting, aesthetics and a trio of terrific performances (from the central pair and Aidan Gillen, playing a man not too dissimilar to a modern-day version of his polarising Game of the Thornes’ character Petyr ‘‘Littlefinger’’ Baelish).

There’s a disorientating and disquieting chilliness to Rose Plays Julie right from the opening scenes, reflective perhaps of Rose’s own detachment from her current reality.

Then, as she begins her search for self-identity, the story takes some sharp turns, as what she discovers is far from what she expected.

As well as the clever use of shadows and framing, the filmmaking duo also marry the action to a haunting, lush orchestral score by Stephen McKeon that reminds one of Lars Von Trier’s use of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in Melancholia.

With the action building towards an almost unbearably tense conclusion, there are echoes of The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Promising Young Woman and Hard Candy, but Rose Plays Julie has a sensibility and sensitivity all its own.

Rose Plays Julie is now screening in select cinemas.