Written by Malcolm Campbell and Clare Dunn
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
Starring Clare Dunn, Ian Lloyd Anderson, Molly McCann, Ruby Rose O’Hara and Harriet Walter
Running time: 1 hour and 37 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for language and one moment of violence

by Audrey Callerstrom

About a year after the release of Wild Rose, the Scottish drama about a single mother (Jessie Buckley) with a Big Dream (being a country singer in America) comes a similar story, this time from Ireland. We first meet Sandra (Clare Dunn, who co-wrote the film with Malcolm Campbell) having a joyous time with her two young daughters, played by Molly McCann and Ruby Rose O’Hara. They sing and dance in the kitchen to Sia’s “Chandelier.” The tone changes as soon as the girl’s father, Gary (Ian Lloyd Anderson) returns home to give Sandra a brutal beating. He steps on her arm, injuring her wrist, which she needs to work in her day jobs as a maid and a bar keep. Her oldest daughter runs to the store to tell the clerk to call the police, which allows Sandra to narrowly escape, but also leaves her with nowhere to live. She brings her girls to an airport hotel, one where the maître d demands they use a separate entrance.