User Reviews

An intriguing story, great acting, some things could have surely been better, but overall it's more than just a good movie, much better than one could tell from it's imdb 6.7 rating

One of the things I reckon a lot of people fear, is being detained in a mental hospital. While I do think that things probably have improved over the years (dear God let that be true) in those facilities, it still wouldn't be something anyone would look forward to.

The acting is really good, the story engaging and the tension is high. You may feel squeamish at times and sickened, but that is what the movie wants you to feel. Not an easy watch then, but if you can watch it, you will find something that is worth your time and really engaging.

This film tells the story of a psychiatrist in Ireland, who is sent to a hospital by the Church to evaluate a woman who has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for the past 40 years.

"The Secret Scripture" begins very slowly, and for a while I thought it wanted to be "The Notebook". It turned out not to be the case, as the plot unfolded to become a shocking story of power abuse. How the perpetrator was capable of doing such inhuman things was simply beyond me. How he lived with his conscience for 40 years was shocking as well. I managed to guess the ending before the obvious clues were given, but seeing such a satisfactory ending drove me to tears. It was really touching to see the ending, even though justice arrived in an untimely manner.

I didn't really know about this film but of course I'll watch anything with Rooney Mara in it no matter what. I absolutely love her, think she's still underrated and think she's absolutely gorgeous. You do have to be cautious about directors whose work hasn't really resonated well in the past so I wasn't expecting something truly great from Jim Sheridan. The minimum of my requirements was to enjoy Rooney Mara and solely in that aspect it met my expectations. 

The Secret Scripture is based on the novel of the same name and is about a girl named Rose (played by Rooney Mara) and her young life in which she has a few suitable men interested in her. The film chronicles her love life and the turmoil that follows with it. It also details her mental health problems and her hospitalization which changes her life in unimaginable ways. The film follows an older Rose (Vanessa Redgrave) and is told through her written diary entries. 

This film isn't very good. I did read that book readers were extremely disappointed by this film either through its adaptation or through changing key points of the plot. The film drudges along and never looks to fully realize its purpose. I think the lead actors's chemistry was off and the script really let the actors down (possibly from not being good enough).  Maybe I am biased because I love Mara but I think she did really well in the film and gave a full effort. You could sense the bewilderment in her character when she got locked into the mental institution.

Overall, no harm done with this one. I didn't really know about it or have any hopes. Bare minimum was that I wanted to see Rooney Mara do well and she does. The film just isn't interesting has a lot of questions and is structured in a careless manner. Nothing to really see here. I'll just look forward to seeing Mara as Mary Magdeline later this year instead.

6/10

Ireland in the 1940s , Roseanne McNulty (elderly Vanessa Redgrave) has allegedly a mental illness and along the way she is writing a strange diary . As Roseanne is a female mental patient who must vacate the soon-to-be demolished mental institution in Roscommon , Ireland , that she's called home for over 50 years. There the hospital's psychiatrist , Dr. William Grene (Eric Bana) has to carry out the control of her mental situation . He finds himself intrigued by Roseanne's her fierce attachment to her Bible , which she has over the decades transformed into a palimpsest of scripture, drawings , weird figures and cryptic diary entries . As Doctor Grene delves deeper into Roseanne's past , as the old woman who keeps a diary of her extended stay at a mental hospital and subsequently we watch her through a long flashback as a young girl (Rooney Mara , though Jessica Chastain was first offered the role but she dropped out after the project was delayed and she was replaced by Mara) seduced by young men of the village , she is really charming , and some youngsters pursue her . We learn that she moved to Sligo to work in her aunt's café , fell in love with a RAF pilot (Jack Reynor , though other actors were originally attached to star the character) , and a local Protestant priest (Theo James) is also enamored for her . ¨At the end of your life, what will you remember?¨. "Anything you see with love is the truth. The rest is smoke" .¨Time doesn't forget¨.

A dramatic film set in Roscommon , Ireland , concerning a troublesome love story with downbeat and tragic consequences . Based on novel ¨The Secret Scripture¨written by Sebastian Barry , its results to be one of the McNulty Family series of books . A competently made Jim Sheridan film , it was very personal to his own experiences : the dramatic film is finely developed with high sensibility , emotion , agreeable situations , an intimate romance in which men fall tragically in love with her and resulting in a sad outcome . Highlights of the movie are the colorful cinematagrahy showing the gorgeous Irish outdoors by cameraman Mikhail Krichman, as well as evocative musical score with plenty of traditional sounds by composer Brian Byrne . Main and support cast area frankly good . Rooney Mara delivers an enjoyable acting as the young woman whose charisma proves seductive . Vanessa Redgrave as the mental hospital patient with seemingly inscrutable rituals and tics gives a pretty good acting , while Eric Bana is nice as a doctor who is called in to assess her mental condition . And Jack Reynor as a dashing fighter pilot and Theo James as his contender suitor , both of whom provide acceptable acting . Along with other decent secondaries , such as : Aidan Turner, Susan Lynch , Pauline McLynn, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Adrian Dumbar , among others .

The motion picture was well directed by Jim Sheridan who usually shoots films in Ireland and about Irish themes . The film was successful critically and commercially was a flop . Jim eventually made his first film, My left foot (1989), starring Daniel Day-Lewis, about the Irish artist Christy Brown, who only had control of his left foot.The film was a surprise success , with both Day-Lewis and co-star Brenda Fricker winning Oscars for their performances. Sheridan received two Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay. It was an amazing debut film, and at age 40, Sheridan was a late bloomer to the film industry. He followed with the film The field (1990), starring Richard Harris a then-unknown Sean Bean and John Hurt, this film was based on a theatre play by John B. Keane . Sheridan bounced back three years later with the film In the name of the father (1993), once again starring Daniel Day-Lewis , and Pete Postlethwaite , gaining seven Oscar nominations but did not win anything, concerning four teenagers who are accused of an IRA bombing . Throughout the 90s , Sheridan did some on-the-side work as an actor and and writing credits . Sheridan's next directorial film was the gritty film The Boxer (1997), which was also the third collaboration between Sheridan and Daniel Day-Lewis. The film was about a former IRA associate released from prison after fourteen years. He attempts to put his life back together by starting a boxing club, as well as reconciling with his former love . It was nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Actor (Day-Lewis) and Best Director (Sheridan). Sheridan moved slowly between his films ; his next film was In america (2002), starring Paddy Considine, and Samantha Morton. And , finally , this The Secret Scripture (2016) . Rating : 7/10 . Above average . Worthwhile watching . The motion picture will appeal to Rooney Mara and Theo James fans .

I had to cry in the end. I just imagine how many have suffered similar faiths. It is a wonderful film. Great actors. Great photography.

One thing that also makes me sad, almost every film has lower ratings than it deserves! I honestly don't understand people who have to be so harsh on everything. That is why I give 10 stars to every film of tv show I loved!

Great job everyone, this was a well made story.

I don't understand why this film isn't more highly rated. Very good performances, fantastic story and beautifully filmed. It's the best performance I have ever seen from Redgrave and Bana delivers a nicely understated supporting performance, as do all the actors with a very menacing Aidan Turner.

It can be a difficult watch as it tackles issues that most want to ignore and/or forget. The film nicely portrays the disgrace of the Irish Roman Catholic Church as well as the very mixed loyalties of the Eire population during WW2.

The ending arrives a little too soon for me but is handled delicately and with care.

I'm not going to explain the story, that has been done in other reviews. What I do want to say is this

The end of this movie brought tears to my eyes, and literally almost broke me, because I have experienced something similar. No, I didn't live in a mental institution all my life, but the pain and heartache is the same, it's excruciating, at the loss of a lover, a family member (including pets), and especially the loss of your child. At the same time the movie brought pain, it also brought healing.

Many movies can be confusing at first, and some stay that way until the very end. This was not confusing at all, you just needed to follow along, and know that eventually that everything will be clear and fit into place.

An awesome movie, exceptional acting, and the music is beautiful, especially the end title "The Cry Inside," written by Brian Byrne and performed by Kelly Clarkson. It was absolutely gorgeous, a masterpiece. Listening to it, and paying attention to the lyrics, is what finally broke me...I sobbed

"The Cry Inside" never goes away. Rose Kennedy explained it as follows ~

"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds,' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."

It's easy to get absorbed in a story without recognising the bigger picture that frames the narrative. To describe The Secret Scripture (2017) as a woman's diary of life in a mental hospital masks the darker narrative of horror perpetrated by the Catholic Church. Based on a 2008 novel of the same name, the film is part of the recent wave of disclosures about appalling misdeeds committed in the name of holiness across various parts of the world.

Set in Ireland from the early 1930s, the story traces the life of Roseanne McNulty who was falsely incarcerated in an Irish mental hospital owned by the Catholic Church. After more than 40 years as a patient, Rose must be discharged or moved elsewhere when the hospital closes. New psychiatrist William Grene (Eric Bana) discovers that she is mentally sharp and has meticulously recorded her life story across the pages of an old bible. In a complex series of flashbacks the elderly Rose (Vanessa Redgrave) recounts how, as a feisty young woman (played by Rooney Mara), she had fallen in love with Michael McNulty (Jack Reynor) believed by locals to be a British sympathiser. The new Father Gaunt (Theo James) takes more than a pastoral interest in Rose and tries to stop the affair. When Rose becomes pregnant and Michael is embroiled in the Irish Troubles, she is hunted down by local vigilantes for harbouring the suspected sympathiser. Enraged by the affair, Father Gaunt certifies her to be suffering from nymphomania and she is subjected to electric shock treatment and other abuses over four decades.

Great filming locations and stellar acting performances by Redgrave and Mara do little to save this film from its complicated and fractured web of episodic flashbacks. The constant shifts of time, place, and people is at the cost of narrative coherence and the contrived finale defies beiief. The narrow expressive repertoire of Eric Bana casts a pall of indifference over Rose's existence as if she were a specimen in a hospital test tube. When it is revealed she is much more than that, Bana strains to emote with warmth or empathy and leaves you wondering why he was cast in that role. The transitions between the younger and older Rose are increasingly disjointed as the entire ensemble drifts towards its soap-operatic conclusion.

Uncertain direction and messy narrative means it is easy to lose sight of the larger story of injustice suffered by people like Rose at the hands of the Catholic Church. The moral perversion of Father Gaunt and the Church's obsession to punish victims is left unexamined. Despite excellent filming and a well-crafted atmosphere of claustrophobic confinement, this film struggles to rise above a mediocre melodrama.

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Just caught the Gala premiere at TIFF and was stunned by this film.

Vanessa Redgrave and Rooney Mara play older and younger versions of Rose Clear, a woman out of place and out of mind in WWII Ireland. The film is based on the novel of the same name.

The acting in the film is beautiful. Director Jim Sheridan called VR a legend in his introduction to the film and the crowd gave her a standing O at the end. Mara does the incredible job of matching her beat for beat. Theo James (who I've only ever seen in the getting- worse-by-the-minute Divergent series) is downright terrifying as the priest who becomes obsessed with Rose. The photography and direction are top notch as well, and take full advantage of Ireland's natural beauty.

Only criticism is that the plot may be hard to follow if one isn't familiar with the details of Irish/British history. It also becomes a bit predictable, but by the time revelations are made the tears are already flowing so all is forgiven. Otherwise, the story weaves really nicely through the intricacies of being a single woman in that particular time and place. The material is heavy, and rightly so. It's interesting to note the contrast between the way women are treated in the film and the way the plot is so female driven and the two female leads are clearly so respected and credited by their director.

Between this, Una and Lion I wouldn't be surprised to see multiple Oscar nods for Mara.

This movie should have been an utter tearjerker from start to finish and it was just nothing. Maybe it's Rooney Mara, who is more like a cold fish than a romantic heroine, maybe it's the direction, which was uninvolving, plodding and workmanlike, and maybe it's just the look of the film, which was colorless and ugly.

I also could not see tiny Mara aging into huge Redgrave, but I could have easily accepted that if the film had engaged me in any way it should have.

There was just no passion in this film at all, and most likely with a different director and a tighter script it would have been a classic tragic love story, instead of just a boring, forgettable waste of time.

I gave it four stars just for the story, but the film really deserves far less.

This movie has plenty of darkness and sadness, but luckily it's punctuated with an element of hope as well, because otherwise I think it would just be too sad to watch. It's a story of a woman in a mental hospital and what brought her there. She's now very old with an addled mind, so the story cuts between past and present to unveil the circumstances of the story. Rooney Mara turns in a strong performance as the younger version of the main character and Theo James - who is normally the hero type - is a creepy priest. Nice to see him in a departure from the norm.

I loved this story but it felt like they were rushed and cut corners towards the end. The acting and script content was nothing short of awkward and misplaced when Dr. Greene (was he supposed to be intoxicated??) describes his childhood. The nurses character could have had a deeper connection to Rose. And most notably... Vanessa Redgrave gave an epic performance! She is Hollywood royalty who was put in the back row. She should have been featured on the movie and doing so likely would have brought more attention to this production.

Sebastian Barry's brilliant novel SECRET SCRIPTURE has been transformed into an eloquent touching film Johnny Ferguson and Director Jim Sheridan. With moody cinematography by Mikhail Krichman and a musical score by Brian Byrne (with a lot of help from Beethoven) and a perfect cast of actors, this radiantly beautiful film should satisfy a large audience – those who love period pieces, Ireland, sweet romance, ad twists of plot.

Roseanne McNulty (Vanessa Redgrave) must vacate the soon-to-be demolished mental institution in Roscommon, Ireland that she's called home for over 50 years. The hospital's psychiatrist, Dr. William Grene (Eric Bana) is called in to assess her condition. He finds himself intrigued by Roseanne's seemingly inscrutable rituals and tics, and her fierce attachment to her Bible, which she has over the decades transformed into a palimpsest of scripture, drawings, and cryptic diary entries. As Grene delves deeper into Roseanne's past, we see her as the young woman Rose (Rooney Mara), whose charisma proves seductive. We learn that she moved to Sligo to work in her aunt's café, fell in love with a dashing fighter pilot Michael McNulty (Jack Reynor), and that a local priest Father Gaunt (Theo James) fell tragically in love with her. The elderly Lady Rose is institutionalized because it was rumored that she murdered her only child at childbirth. Dr Grene and a nurse (Susan Lynch) are supportive of Lady Rose as the story unfolds in the most sensitive manner.

There is much to be praised in this film – the manner in which the conflict between the Irish and the British altered personal lives and relationships, the horrors of the early 20th century insane asylums, the struggle Catholics priests at times endure with their celibacy vows, and the beauty of Ireland – but the cast is so fine that they shine with this material. This is a very fine film.

This is a surprise film. Almost my favourite. Because I don't know when the last time I wetted my eyes. I'm not ashamed to say that I love sentimental films. This was not like a thorough tearjerker, but it gets there at some point. It was like I have been waiting for such film a very long time, so that I ended up liking it more than I was anticipating.

An Irish-English language film with a wonderful cast. Because of those actors I have watched it, despite it was not promoted big like the Hollywood films. It's not in the mainstream films list. That's why not many people do not know about this film. Rooney Mara's one of the best performances. The remaining cast too had big roles, but was not powerful as hers.

Films has genres, books has genres, but not all of those works converted to each other form works out. This is such a rare genre where both formats triumphs. Watching this film is almost as experience of reading the book. You know those literatures explaining the events, character deeply, emotionally, that's quite matching in this film with beautiful locations and nice background score.

The suspense kept me expecting every moment of my watch. The end twist was not that difficult, but not all the viewers can predict it easily. It is a tale from the first half of the 20th century. But most of it was split into early and the later events. Overwhelmed by the flashback, the film reveals an old and a last woman in a mental asylum to evacuate the building to a new location. So those last moments of her stay in there, she explains why she's refusing to leave.

-xX] There's a sickness in people that stops them seeing the truth. [Xx-

A doctor from another place is now reviewing her case, has to go through her story to understand the situation and act accordingly, that's accompanied by a nurse. So she reveals her secret romance when she was young, when the whole town turned against her. Particularly a young priest. How she had ended up in the mental hospital, and after 40 years, now denying to leave the building. The story ends emotionally.

The film was like the mix of 'The Little Prince' and 'Neverwas'. Because the reality and the other way around were nicely put together. Only it all were told from the grown up's perspective. They are showing something means does not you have to believe it. So it all comes to the final twist, how it ends by revealing what. No doubt if it resembles someone's real life, perhaps in the past, because in the earlier centuries, such fate, particularly for women is so common. That's where it's heart-wrenching.

A perfect title for what it narrated. The older version of the lead role was too well performed. The romance part was short, but mystery extended till the final scene. Overall, the focus given to what to narrate and what not were nicely done. A very satisfying film, glad that I saw it.

I don't know everybody would like it as much I did, but surely worth a try. Since the story was told from a woman's point of view about her struggle in the men dominated world, they might like it better than others. Because, as I know in the recent, the women's empowerment rising to equal men than never before. All I say is, just watch it!

8.5/10

What a stupid film compared with the books. Thousands of differences without any reason. Rose's beauty becomes the central motif but should be only one under several.

What a great movie.

If you liked The Notebook and know a bit about the conflict between the Republic of Ireland and Britain, it's a must see.

Terrific cast - Vanessa Redgrave (Call the Midwife), Eric Bana, Theo James (Divergent), Aidan Turner (Poldark), Rooney Mara (Lion), Adrian Dunbar (Line Of Duty), Jack Reynor - very fitting music and very emotional.

There were a couple of times when I wished documents had stayed on the screen slightly longer so that I could have read the contents but that won't be a problem when the Blu-ray and DVD come out, which I'll definitely be adding to my collection.

I came upon this movie by accident, I had never heard of this movie so I looked it up and read some of the reviews and a lot of them were excellent and some were not so good so I decided to watch it and give it a chance. This movie was so touching. I could totally see this happening back then when the story line had taking place. I cried at the end of the movie. It touched my heart. I would totally suggest you watch it.

This is one of those rare films that engages and tests your emotions. Superbly directed and flawlessly acted by one and all, this film will provoke a myriad of emotions from anger, sadness and outrage to tenderness, warmth and love and I hope for many, tears at it's conclusion. It depicts a lot of what is wrong with the human psyche and the vileness of the Catholic Church, but it also evokes hope and peace from a life of pain.

Too bad they don't make movies like this anymore. Great acting. Suspenseful plot. All around good movie!