Review: 'Herself' is a warm, winning Irish drama, and a star-making turn for actor/writer Clare Dunne

The Irish domestic drama “Herself” is a big-hearted and inspirational story of resilience and motherly love — and a grand global introduction of actor/writer Clare Dunne.

Dunne — who has story credit and co-wrote the screenplay with Malcolm Campbell — plays Sandra White, a Dublin mother who we first see playing with her young daughters, Emma (Ruby Rose O’Hara) and Molly (Molly McCann). That brief happiness is shattered when Sandra’s husband, Gary (Ian Lloyd Anderson) comes home, sends the children away, and then savagely beats Sandra. This isn’t the first time, we know, because Sandra and Emma have a secret code to call the police.

The story cuts to some time later, with Sandra and the girls living in a hotel near the Dublin airport, subsidized by welfare — and even then, Sandra is working in a bar and cleaning a woman’s house to make ends meet. Finding a new apartment is impossible, even with rent vouchers, but she’s determined that she’s not going to return to Gary.

While juggling jobs, and a custody schedule with Gary, Sandra comes across a potential solution to her housing problem: A self-built mini-house. She can’t get the city welfare office to help, but gets an unexpected offer from Peggy (Harriet Walter), the doctor whose house Sandra cleans: Free land in Peggy’s backyard, and a loan to pay for the house materials. Sandra even finds a retired contractor, Aido (Conleth Hill, from “Game of Thrones”), to oversee construction.

Director Phyllida Lloyd (“Mamma Mia!,” “The Iron Lady”) doesn’t shy away from Sandra’s pain as an abused spouse or a poverty-stricken mom. But Lloyd doesn’t let Sandra or the movie wallow in the misery, either. This is a story about Sandra’s resolve and survival skills, as she battles bureaucracy and her own self-doubt to make a better life for herself and her daughters — and, almost by accident, discovering a community of friends who support her dream.

Dunne gives a tender, yet intense, portrayal of Sandra, a woman finally driven to leave her abusive husband and strong enough to handle the consequences of that decision. Dunne, in writing herself a plum role, gives “Herself” a warm glow generated from an emotional melodrama that’s never pandering and always true to its heart.

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‘Herself’

★★★1/2

Available for streaming starting Friday, January 8, on Prime video; now playing at Megaplex Valley Fair (West Valley City). Rated R for language and some domestic violence. Running time: 97 minutes.