Saoirse Ronan Appreciation Week, round 2

Blaugust is an annual blogging festival in August where the goal is to write a blog post every day of the month.

A short Saturday break from my Python series to talk about Saoirse Ronan. She's quickly become one of my favourite actors and after my first Saoirse Ronan Appreciation Week in May, I decided to do another one this week.

Five more days, five more wonderful movies. From historical to artistic and from intense to joyful, there's a lot going on in these five movies.

Monday: How I Live Now

How I Live Now (2013)

6.4/10

3.0/5

66%

Directed by Kevin Macdonald

Starring Saoirse Ronan, George MacKay, Tom Holland

An American girl, sent to the English countryside to stay with relatives, finds love and purpose while fighting for her survival as war envelops the world around her.

First thought after a few first scenes roll by: Saoirse Ronan and Tom Holland are so young in this. From Ronan, I had seen Hanna from her earlier years but my first time seeing Holland was in Marvel's Civil War. Somehow, it's only 3 years later than this but Holland grew up from a boy to a young man in those years. Even at their young age, they both ooze charisma. No wonder they ended up becoming stars.

This movie is quite a rollercoaster ride of moods and tones. It starts with a happy go lucky summer of a group of kids who are cousins to each other getting to know each other and having a good time. Then the dread of the war starts to make waves — first far in the distance and then suddenly right at the backyard and the whole feel of the movie changes from joyful relationship drama to surviving in a war and kids taking care of other kids.

What I really like about Ronan's acting is that she's great at playing imperfect characters in broken worlds. This movie is one good example of that. The Outrun that I watched last time is another.

Tuesday: On Chesil Beach

On Chesil Beach (2017)

6.3/10

3.0/5

61%

Directed by Dominic Cooke

Starring Saoirse Ronan, Billy Howle, Anne-Marie Duff

In 1962 England, a young couple finds their idyllic romance colliding with issues of sexual freedom and societal pressure, leading to an awkward and fateful wedding night.

On Chesil Beach was on my original list last time but due to an admin error on my behalf (I accidentally used all my library streaming loans before watching it) had to skip it. Now it was time to right that wrong and borrow the movie from the library for this week's viewing.

I had high expectations for this movie based on the positive reviews I had read. Unfortunately it didn't quite do it for me.

Don't get me wrong, it's not by any means a bad movie. It's a good relationship drama set in 1960s where Florence (Saoirse Ronan) and Edward (Billy Howle) explore their relationship and figuring out how to have sex.

It just never clicked with me and I'm having difficulty pointing out exactly why. Having watched a bunch of Ronan's movies in a short time, I think she has many better performances playing somewhat similar characters.

Wednesday: Mary Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

6.3/10

3.1/5

65%

Directed by Josie Rourke

Starring Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden

In 1561, Mary Stuart, widow of the King of France, returns to Scotland, reclaims her rightful throne and menaces the future of Queen Elizabeth I as ruler of England, because she has a legitimate claim to the English throne.

Mary Queen of Scots is a magnificent movie of the 1500s monarchy power struggles in England and Scotland. It's one of the rare movies where the press tour — especially the visits of Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie at The Graham Norton Show — was the trigger for me to get interested in this movie.

I don't know or particularly care about how historically accurate it is. I know they made a bunch of artistic choices to make a more interesting story and I'm very fine with that. My knowledge or interest of 1500s history is not very high so I watched it like I would watch any medieval fantasy fiction.

And for that, it's a great movie. Ronan and Robbie, playing Mary and Elizabeth respectively, are both great at portraying strong women who need to keep all sorts of power hungry underlings in leash as they are many.

Thursday: See How They Run

See How They Run (2022)

6.5/10

3.2/5

63%

Directed by Tom George

Starring Saoirse Ronan, Sam Rockwell, Adrien Brody

In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered.

See How They Run was a bit of surprising movie for me. I'm generally not a fan of traditional whodunnit movies but this one geared up better and better, especially through the relationship of Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan), an up and coming young police officer and her boss Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) who's not as enthusiastic and is reluctant to work with Stalker.

There's a fantastic short scene where Stalker is taking notes and Stoppard asks her how she knows if something is important. As a note geek, I loved it so much. (And yes, I may be stretching a bit on the concept of a "week" here but like Doctor Who said, "time is wibbly wobbly".)

The movie has two parallel stories: the aforementioned relationship and the actual murder mystery. During a stage play of a whodunnit mystery, a crew member is murdered and the police need to figure out who's behind the crime and why.

There's a lot of clever word play that I loved. The dialogue is sharp and witty and the characters have strong personalities, portraied in overly manner as is customary to stage play.

Friday: The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

8.1/10

4.2/5

80%

Directed by Wes Anderson

Starring Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori (+ Saoirse Ronan)

The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century.

After I shared the first blog post, I had a couple of discussions about her movies with friends and Wes Anderson's fantastic The Grand Budapest Hotel came up a few times.

It's not exactly a "Saoirse Ronan movie" as she plays a rather small supporting role but it's Friday and she's in the movie and I love that movie so I'm cashing in my Creative Freedom coupon and count this as one of her movies.

I've seen this movie so many times. When it came out, I was living in San Francisco and was friends with a guy who was a massive Anderson fan. I had never seen any of his movies or even heard of him before that but the recommendation from a friend led me to this movie. Oh boy I'm happy it did.

Every shot and scene in this movie is beautifully crafted. The sets are breath-takingly stunning, the action and dialogue is framed perfectly and while it has a certain wesandersonist absurdism to it, it flows so effortlessly and it's easy to enjoy.

Ronan's role as Agatha is not a big one but she does a great performance as the love interest of the young hotel lobby boy Zero. She's brave and cunning and pours her love and effort into pastry baking.