Thoughts on A Date for Mad Mary

I really liked A Date for Mad Mary a lot, I found it very emotionally touching. It is a small Irish film directed by Darren Thornton from 2016 about a young woman named Mary (Seána Kerslake) who returns home to her small town after a brief time in prison, and is struggling with wanting to be a supportive maid of honor in her best friend’s wedding amidst having a prickly personality and a rough past. She puts pressure on herself to find a guy to take as a date for the wedding on short-notice, but ends up falling for a female wedding photographer, and doesn’t know how to figure her life out post-prison.

I really felt for Mary, and liked how the film had this very intimate feeling with its camerawork, with a lot of close-up shots of Mary done very handheld-style, like literally following her on her path. She was very torn between wanting to be there for her friend and fit into heteronormativity standards while also wanting to punch anyone who looked at her wrong and shake off town gossip.

Then when she falls for a woman, she still doesn’t know if she can call herself a lesbian, she just likes her and feels less defensive, like her face can relax more and show contentment.

This was a really interesting and nice little movie, and it is available on Hulu to watch.