Critics reviews

[W]ithin what might be a bleak setup, director Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!) nestles a radiant humanity that blossoms into a heartwarming story of kindness, resilience, and love.

"Herself" has embedded within it a biting commentary about how bureaucracies—such as welfare and/or social services—tend to keep people in the cycle, as opposed to helping them rise out of it.

Lloyd—a director of stage productions as well as films like Mamma Mia! and The Iron Lady—guides the movie with a firm yet gentle touch, approaching the domestic-violence angle, in particular, in a way that’s both discreet and suitably forceful. Even so, the film does feel a little off-balance dramatically.

As trite as “Herself” is in plot and emotional beats, what makes it worthwhile are the performances, which are all stellar.

But even though the film does introduce a couple moments of genuine surprise near the end, one following Dunne’s dulcet but foreboding rendition of the old folk ballad “The Lass of Aughrim,” it cannot escape its own somewhat mundane self-set contours.

The film is far more radical and affecting when it focuses on the strength and support it takes to build someone back up after a traumatic relationship, instead of focusing on the inescapable darkness of the final act.

Moments that veer a little too closely to the saccharine are drawn back to a very harsh reality late on, but Lloyd does well to balance the rough with the smooth throughout. Herself champions women supporting one another in the face of adversity, through shared knowledge and experience and the film is to be applauded for doing so.

The story of an indomitable mum overcoming all these hurdles might be a guaranteed rabble-rouser, but Lloyd’s film isn’t that. It takes so many shortcuts, dispensing a close-to-magical solution to Sandra’s real-world problems.

“Herself” is a dark film despite its frequent glimmers of laughter and hope—it is sober about the universal consequences of domestic abuse beyond the immediate, and critically unforgiving of legal and governmental systems that fail women who just need to be believed in and listened to.

If there is a lot of “happy coincidence” driving the plot, Dunne gets away with it by constructing this tale of female resilience and community from the ground up, through well-observed moments between mother and daughters.

“Herself,” is another more sobering effort and an affecting look at domestic abuse and emancipation from violence. It’s a low-key Dublin-set drama, touching upon social issues of economic anxiety and housing crises, and one that’s deeply empathetic, sharply observed, and features terrifically moving performances.

Many filmmakers mistakenly think that exploiting tragedy is the way to jerk tears from their audience, when in fact, gestures of spontaneous kindness shown by near-strangers can be most moving — something Lloyd understands...