The Nightingale isn’t a nice, fun watch. There are moments from the off that will leave you feeling disgusted and distraught, as some of the members of the British Army treat a female Irish convict as both a punching bag and a sex slave. The first 30 minutes are incredibly hard to stomach, but serve as the ultimate tale of revenge for a young woman who has lost it all at the hands of evil men.
Set in 1825, in the British penal colony of Van Diemen's Land (now known as the Australian state of Tasmania), the movie centres around Irish convict Clare Carroll (Aisling Franciosi), who is serving her criminal time as a servant to a British Army unit commanded by Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin).
Though Claflin is an actor we’ve seen in a number of charming and endearing roles in the past, his character here is anything but. Hawkins is a brutish, over-privileged under-achiever, who doesn’t like to be told ‘no’. He has promised Clare for weeks that he will allow her to go free now that she has served her seven-year sentence, but continues to push back the date of her freedom so that he can use her for his own deviant means.
Claflin plays the bad guy very well. He spits his lines with real disgust, forcing audiences to become fully enveloped within the drama and shameful goings-on we see on the screen. He effortlessly forces Clare and her husband Aidan – who also serves under the Lieutenant – into submission, putting his fellow serving members of the British Army to use so that he can get his hands on whatever, and whoever, he wants. When he doesn’t get his own way, we see how he reacts, and it’s gut-wrenching to say the very least.
Tragedy is a running theme throughout The Nightingale, not just for our lead character Clare, but for many of the people who come into contact with the British Army.
Van Diemen's Land's Black War wasn't a pretty affair and, for many Brits, it's something to be ashamed of. We like to talk about patriotism in our country, whilst shining off all of the disgusting, gritty things that the British Army had done in pursuit of ultimate control and power. Here, they stole the land from under Aboriginal Australians' feet, killing those who stood in their way. Whilst this is a fictional story from that time, the plights of the Aboriginal people are a very real thing. We see the effects of this and their treatment right up to this very day in Australia.
Franciosi is a stellar actress, giving the performance of a lifetime from start to finish. We go on a real evolutional journey with her character, willing her to succeed as she goes out on a mission of revenge with an Aboriginal tracker named Billy (Baykali Ganambarr). Whilst their relationship is a fractious one, they learn to respect one another when they discover their shared hatred for the British Army, and all they have taken from them. We learn quickly that this isn’t just a tale of revenge for Clare, but for Billy, too.
Of course, the pursuit of revenge isn’t as clear cut as some stories would make out. There is a personal cost to taking out your frustrations on the enemy; murdering them steals a chunk of humanity, which Clare feels very deeply. She may have thought it would be simple to take out those who have wronged her in the very worst way, but there’s still morality left in her that sees her weighing up what is important in this next and potentially final chapter of her life.
You’ll need a strong stomach to watch The Nightingale; it’s a brutal story that may have you looking away from the screen in disgust on more than one occasion. The writing and high-class performances from every member of its cast however, make it a must-see for anybody who’s a fan of a period drama, action and suspense.
The Nightingale is out now in cinemas across the UK, as well as on digital. Check out an exclusive clip from the film below: