God’s Creatures Review

Paul Mescal has taken to his Academy Award nod as Adam Driver did when Marriage Story rolled around. A litany of decent and hardworking performances with Mescal at the centre are now on show. Beyond Aftersun, far past the considered work he provided in the lacklustre and forgotten The Lost Daughter, there are little notes of flavour for how Mescal is shaping up as a performer. He is still the golden boy of A24 fans, as his inclusion in God’s Creatures and untapped commercial value shows. Under the waves and regular as clockwork, God’s Creatures hopes to show that nothing changes in the closely-knit, small-town communities but chokes as its opening death does, with too much focus on those rippling waves that seem sedentary but soon turn fatal. 

Part of the struggle is the pace of storytelling found within. Slower pace is not the issue, there is a real beauty to the scenery of Anna Rose Holmer and Saela Davis’ work here, but that lends itself more to the sleepy fishing village on show. Their storytelling and pacing depend more on the fascination with normality, the build-up spending much more time on exploring the abandoned comforts of home when the one who flew the nest returns to make a new start. Mescal considers that role with Brian O’Hara with the usually stern and uncomfortable leniency that lends itself to the later moments that turn a viewer and mother, played by Emily Watson, on him. Watson is another unsung talent to grace the screen, a commanding, emotive performance here is as good as it gets for God’s Creatures.

They are God’s creatures on that island, the dimly lit rooms that smell of despair, and stagnant feelings among all concerned. It shifts from death to dismay and death again as though revolving despair dominates every corner. That it does, but in hoping to convey the realism and brutalism of the world around these characters, God’s Creatures forgets to provide insightful experiences in the valleys beyond the harm. It is not that it is needed for balance, not at all, but for the clarity of what was lost before damage is done. Inevitably emotional scenes between Mescal and Watson provide some further clarity to that desire to fly the nest, and a powerful performance from Aisling Franciosi gives the feature that expected, lingering final moment of moving on from the ghosts that haunt small villages. It feels expected rather than earned that the film ends with a full-circle comeuppance.  

God’s Creatures is idealistic for the grieving and guilty parties shown. It shows what would happen in a simpler, black-and-white style of living that doesn’t quite connect with the reality of its story. Mescal is given a disgusting, brutal turn and displays his talents as a conniving and villainous piece of work but entertaining that struggle and developing it is more for the sake of giving Watson a place to grieve. Fumbled thefts and grander, disturbing and pertinent issues take the place of real living in God’s Creatures, a slowly shifting, tidal movie that finds comfort in closure but has some work cut out for itself in getting there. Empty valleys do not mean empty hearts, but God’s Creatures fails to find anything below its apposite turns and tricks.