The Fading Light

"Does Peter understand that you're dying?" asks the nurse of bed-ridden Mam (Larrson). Of course he doesn't - Peter (O’Donnell) is autistic, thinking his mother is just ill - and Mam is waiting on her other children to arrive home and break the news. First home is Cathy (Regan), followed quickly by Yvonne (Kane). Writer-director Ivan Kavanagh is brief on familial details and it seems the sisters themselves know little of each other. A quick catch up and the audience is granted some information: Cathy is an actress working as a waitress to make ends meet while Yvonne is 'successful' but successful at what remains unclear. Kavanagh knows that these details aren't important - what is important is what's happening in this house, right now. What follows is the family's attempts to come to terms with their mother's impending death.

The Fading Light, forever committed to sticking close to truth and believability, becomes very difficult to watch very quickly. Mam refuses to take the morphine because she wants to be lucid in her last days, but this leads to some tough scenes where Yvonne and Cathy try, even though there is nothing they can do, to nurse her through the pain while Patrick bounces off the walls with panic and fear. The scene where the sisters break the news to Patrick that Mam is more than just sick would reduce anyone to tears. Another scene where Mam makes Yvonne promise that she won't send Patrick to a home, a promise Yvonne makes but the audience knows she won't keep, is another that will burn in the memory. The performances, reaching the emotional height Kavanagh was looking for, are flawless. O'Donnell's depiction of Peter tears at the heart while Kane and Regan are asked to underplay the roles, which they do to perfection. Even Tim (Henry Garrett), Yvonne's boyfriend, a character who has little screen time, sears himself onto the film. There isn't a moment where they're not believable.

Kavanagh, who can be included with Lance Daly as an Irish filmmaker on the up and up, may be guilty of overcooking the climax but this exploration of guilt and death's affect on those left behind is a raw and sometimes uncompromising portrayal. Not for those looking for an easy night at the flicks.