Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Eva Birthistle
Starring: Hazel Doupe, Claire Dunne, Peter Coonan, Lisadán Dunlea, James McGowan, Aaron Monaghan
In the last few years Hazel Doupe has established
herself as one of Ireland's most exciting young acting talents. In both
her appearance and acting ability she bears similarities to Thomasin
McKenzie. With her recent role in period thriller Eileen, McKenzie got to show that she could skilfully combine her trademark
vulnerability with a touch of menace, and now with writer/director Eva Birthistle's Kathleen is Here, Doupe is is given the chance to prove she's equally capable of striking
the same balance.
Doupe's Kathleen is an 18-year-old who has just left the foster care
system, having spent the last few years of her life being moved around
various homes. Having "come of age," Kathleen is now left to fend for
herself, and so she moves back into the now vacant home she shared with
her mother prior to her alcohol related death. Kathleen may be a legal
adult now, but it's clear she maintains a childlike attitude to life, and
an immaturity to boot. We see the latter displayed in the opening scene as
she vents her frustration at missing a bus by causing a scene at the
station.
Kathleen's social worker, Damian (Aaron Monaghan), puts on a brave
face in his dealings with Kathleen, assuring her that she just needs to
get a job and make some friends her own age and she'll be fine. But we can
tell by the look in his eyes that he doesn't really believe his own words.
It's clear that there's something we're not being told about
Kathleen.
Heeding his advice, Kathleen takes a job stacking shelves at a local
supermarket, where she befriends the rebellious Yvonne (Liadan Dunlea). She also gets to know her next door neighbour, Dee (Claire Dunne), who has just recently moved in with her husband Rory (Peter Coonan) and their young son Conor (James McGowan). Dee feels sorry for
this lonely young girl, and having lost her own daughter at a young age,
she's drawn to forming a maternal bond with Kathleen. All too willing to
play the role of surrogate daughter to Dee, Kathleen begins spending time
in her company, much to the annoyance and suspicion of Rory. As her
obsession with Dee grows, Kathleen turns to increasingly disturbing
tactics to ensure nobody gets between them.
Birthistle's script leans into some of the more clichéd tropes of stalker
movies, with Kathleen stealing one of Dee's family photos and scratching
out the faces of her husband and child, along with the obligatory scene
where she terrifies some child bullies. In terms of its structure it's not
a million miles away from the average Lifetime thriller of the week. But
what distinguishes Birthistle's film from such production line fare is the
depth of its characters. Far from a stock psycho, Kathleen's brand of
sociopathy is disturbingly real. One of the more unnerving aspects of
Kathleen is how she enthusiastically launches into monologues in Dee's
presence about pleasant childhood memories. These speeches have so many
small details that we can't tell if they're true or if they're simply
fabricated stories Kathleen has told so many times by this point that she
knows her own lies word for word. Doupe smiles with such manufactured
enthusiasm in these moments that we can almost see Kathleen's make-up
begin to crack under the strain of wearing a false mask. Dunne plays the
role of Dee in a manner that similarly causes us to wonder if she can't
see how troubled Kathleen really is, or if she chooses to ignore the many
red flags hoisted by the young girl.
Birthistle is willing to stray from the main plot and allow us to hang
out with Kathleen in moments a filmmaker less interested in her character
might ignore. Despite her potential for causing harm, we grow to care
about Kathleen and even like her in spite of the abrasive wall she builds
around herself. While Kathleen is Here is scary and sad, it's also very funny, imbued with a very Irish
sense of humour. Many of the laughs come from Kathleen's sociopathic lack
of a filter - "That was shite," is how she responds to Rory's impromptu
singing - while Dunlea is hilarious as a young woman who takes nothing in
life seriously beyond getting drunk and laid. We like all of the women in
Birthistle's film, regardless of how mad and messy they might be, and as
the film edges towards its climax, we begin to grow tense as it becomes
clear the cold reality of the scenario is set to inevitably kick in.
Birthistle raises questions about how society deals with people like
Kathleen, but she's wise enough to understand any answers can't be
provided by a filmmaker alone.
