Kathleen Is Here movie storyline. Kathleen is 18 and fresh out of foster care. Her departure coincides with the death of her biological mother and she returns to her hometown to take ownership of her mother’s house. Across the road lives Dee, with her husband, Rory, and young son, Conor.
Kathleen ingratiates herself to Dee through a seemingly selfless act and Dee feels indebted to her. Just as Kathleen’s world is starting to come together, tendencies from her past start to seep out through the cracks in her façade. Intent on playing happy families, Kathleen becomes dangerously obsessed with Dee. She implicates Rory in an extramarital affair to further her goal of having Dee all to herself – a goal that ultimately leads to her own destruction.
Kathleen Is Here is an American crime thriller film directed by Eva Birthistle and starring Hazel Doupe, Clare Dunne, Peter Coonan, Aaron Monaghan, Liadan Dunlea, James McGowan, Toni O’Rourke, Matthew O’Brien, Sean McAuliffe, Cara Cooney, Connie Doona, David Flynn and Molly McCann. The screenplay was written by Eva Birthistle.
Film Review for Kathleen Is Here
A complex exploration of isolation and obsession, Eva Birthistle’s film Kathleen Is Here is an interesting addition to the Raindance Film Festival programme. Originally conceived as a short, the film examines the life of Kathleen (played by Hazel Doupe) as she leaves the Irish care system.
Travelling back to her family home, the empty, dishevelled house brings back nothing but bad memories. Her support worker Damian (Aaron Monaghan) attempts to get Kathleen to focus on her future. A job at the town’s supermarket is secured. Initially wary of new people, Kathleen dazzles her co-worker Yvonne (a charismatic Liadan Dunlea) with her knowledge of celebrity culture.
She rattles off the diet secrets of the Kardashians as easily as the alphabet. She also meets her neighbour, Dee (Clare Dunne) and there is a spark of connection between the two women. Warm, friendly and full of maternal concern, Kathleen finds in Dee the support she never received as a child. Their friendship, teetering uneasily between the platonic and something more, sees Kathleen edit out the unpalatable aspects of her past. As Kathleen vies for Dee’s attention, she sees Dee’s family – husband Rory (Peter Coonan) and son, Conor (James McGowan) – as an inconvenience. They are getting in the way.
Dunne will be appearing in the upcoming adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novel, Small Things Like These, and in Birthistle’s film, we can see echoes of contemporary Irish literature: the detailed creation of terse, complicated worlds. The juxtaposition of rural tradition and celebrity culture rubbing against each other builds an atmosphere of not quite belonging. It is not just Kathleen who feels adrift. Dee struggles to make sense of the loss of a child while seemingly having the perfect life; Yvonne actively stirs trouble in an attempt to find connection and meaning.
Kathleen Is Here also provides a searing commentary on the state of the care system. In foster care since the age of 4, Kathleen’s broken childhood, and its lack of affection, results in her being unable to form appropriate attachments. Her hard-wired sense of survival overrides any kind of emotional response. Doupe’s performance is, by turns, delicate and brittle. Her watchful, bird-like features are skilfully captured by Birthistle’s lens: we see what Kathleen sees, but, as it becomes increasingly clear, we do not see them in the same way.
This film is not your standard Single White Female. Birthistle has created a nuanced portrait of emotional damage, and how it reverberates through not just one, but several, lives. While Birthistle takes aim – and skewers – the care system and its failings, Kathleen Is Here also looks at isolation in a wider sense.
Living in a small town that’s keen on gossip but less willing to get involved (the row of unblinking windows in Kathleen’s street are a nice metaphor), Birthistle asks bigger questions about how Ireland’s sense of community will evolve in the twenty-first century. As a tale of obsession, Kathleen Is Here works well. As a reflection on Irish contemporary life, it’s even better.
Directed by: Eva Birthistle
Starring: Hazel Doupe, Clare Dunne, Peter Coonan, Aaron Monaghan, Liadan Dunlea, James McGowan, Toni O’Rourke, Matthew O’Brien, Sean McAuliffe, Cara Cooney, Connie Doona, David Flynn, Molly McCann
Screenplay by: Eva Birthistle
Production Design by: Anna Carney
Cinematography by: Burschi Wojnar
Film Editing by: Colin Campbell
Costume Design by: Saileóg O’Halloran
Music by: Sam Thompson, Amelia Warner
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: A24 Films
Release Date: June 25, 2024 (United Kingdom), October 18, 2024 (Ireland)
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