Like his Normal People co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones, Paul Mescal's knack of landing the right role at the right time continues with God's Creatures: a taut psychological character study that shows another side to him as an actor - this time opposite Emily Watson.
Here, as prodigal son Brian, Mescal returns from Australia to a fishing community in early-Nineties Ireland, and doting mother Aileen (Watson) hopes he's back for good. With the locals in mourning after the drowning of a young fisherman, the timing of Brian's return seems ominous. Sure enough, gut feelings are right yet again.
American co-directors Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer prove adept at working across the Atlantic with their excellently cast and authentically damp take on ham sandwiches, secrets, and dread. Indeed, so good are Davis and Holmer at native undertow that you'd swear they grew up as neighbours of God's Creatures writing duo Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly and Shane Crowley.
When the twist arrives in this story, you may have been expecting a different one - it's spoiling nothing to say trouble is brewing right from the start. With that shock delivered, Mescal and Watson turn up the intensity and the interplay is fascinating to watch. High praise must also go to their co-star Aisling Franciosi for her unnerving work here. Saying more would be to reveal too much.
Arguably, God's Creatures needed a couple of extra scenes before its bombshell, but that's the only issue to be found in this memorable addition to Irish cinema by two directors a long way from home. Hopefully, Davis and Holmer will come back again.
