It Is In Us Allis a somber Irish thriller from writer-directorAntonia Campbell-Hughesthat capitalizes on the dreary, haunted aesthetics of the long stretches of rural roadway in the northwest corner of Ireland. It is a slow creeping film that really accelerates in the final act, but the lead-up to those final moments is a grim, depressing tale that really grabs you by the throat.
Hamish (Cosmo Jarvis) is a man seeking to retrace the steps that his late mother once took, as he returns to the small rural community that she once called home. He takes up residence in the familial property there, sleeping on an unmade bed and perfectly at ease in the nearly unfurnished home. It’s the perfect visual allusion for how Hamish is living his life—detached from reality and occupying space like a spectre that’s only just visiting this existence. Jarvis does well at playing into this stiff, emotionless, and distant man. The restraint is palpable and wholly uncomfortable.
The night that Hamish makes his venture out to his mother’s homeland he gets into a devastating car accident that has a permanent impact on the trajectory of his life. Not only does he have to grapple with the emotional strain of trying to discover who his mother was, but he has to face the fallout of the accident. Hamish is thrown off course when Evan (Rhys Mannion) comes into his life after the accident.
Evan is a seventeen-year-old schoolboy filled with vibrant, unbridled life and stands in stark contrast with Hamish’s reserved nature. Evan is a thrill-seeker, chasing brushes with death, and racing after that next high. His unrestrained approach to life sends Hamish down a rabbit hole as the two bond, but it is never enough to shake Hamish out of his somber demeanor. The juxtaposition of Hamish’s jarring stiffness always adds a layer of unease to the scenes of Evan and his friends dancing or laughing or living.
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Campbell-Hughes is subtle in the way that she needles at masculinity throughoutIt Is In Us All. She weaves it into the initial introduction to Hamish—his clipped dialogue, terse demeanor, his strained relationship with his father. He is desperately trying to reconnect with the lost feminine energy in his life that was his mother, but he is cut off from it, both physically and emotionally. The car accident and the proceeding trauma related to that acts as another barrier, even as an alternative path emerges. There are so many little things that play into this from the way he duct tapes his injured arm, to his reckless anger, and the way he restrains his emotions at every turn. That’s what leads to the accelerated final act and the ultimate tragedy of it all. The cost of enforced masculinity is human life. There is a deep, aching poignancy to the emotions that Hamish won’t let himself feel.
Hamish’s isolation is further constructed by the way Campbell-Hughes composes her shots. She and her Director of Photography Piers McGrail utilize glorious wide shots to play into the isolating nature of the scenic majesty of Ireland, positioning Hamish as this singular figure amidst a vast endlessness. It’s these moments that strengthen the story that the script sets out to tell.
It Is In Us Allis the kind of movie you make time to see at a film festival. It’s reverential, haunting, and it will loom over you like a dark cloud once the credits roll. There are echoes of generational trauma, a deep-seated self-loathing, and a distinct ache and longing for human connection that really strikes at the heart of what makes Irish films so profound. As a directorial debut, Campbell-Hughes displays her keen eye for composition, a deep understanding of the soul of humanity, and secures herself as a director to keep an eye on.
It Is In Us Allhad its world premiere at SXSW this week.
