On Facebook today, I saw another blogger share the trailer of this film, marking it with the hashtag: #ad. This made me cringe. I don't mean to share this film as an ad; I'm under no obligation to do so. In fact, I ignored it for a long while because I didn't really want to watch this film. To be honest, I hate living in a world where we must watch documentaries and films of child poverty, abuse and sex trafficking to believe it's real and under our noses.
But my love for an Irish heroine and just this one happy ending won out.
Noble is the true story of Christina Noble, a Dubliner growing up in poverty, truant, taken from her father, separated from her siblings and raised in an orphanage. And that's only the beginning. I'm not particularly well-versed in the Ireland of the 50s and 60s, but I've read stories of truancy officers storming into houses in search of absent children and I've heard the tearful apology from the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) to women of the "laundries" who were essentially incarcerated by the State and denied the right to raise their children.
Likewise, Christina is raped, abused, her own child taken away from her by the Church, but she has a wild dream and she never forgets. She yells at God, too. She yells at Him and she keeps going, knowing that if she gives up her faith now, she'll never survive. And she believes He'll show up in the end.
Rambling prayers aloud, she strikes a bargain: "I'll tell you what: I'll walk. You lead."
Maybe the world could do with a bit less talking and a lot more walking.
Noble opens in theatres across the US today, and though it was made in the UK, this is an Irish film at heart. The fight, the love, the longing for justice. She's a brash woman, Christina, but I think I might love her.
I hope you'll check it out. This is no ad, there's been no compensation. It's not perfect, and just one arrest is, to quote Irish oilman Gerry, "just a drop in the ocean." But it's a good film, and a timely one. (And Bates from Downton Abbey is in it, so that's a win, too.)
*I was offered an advanced viewing of Noble. No other compensation was received. All views are my own.