Wednesday's Child

Two social workers pay a visit to a dysfunctional family.

Marie (Harvey) has just began her new job as a community childcare worker and along with her experienced colleague Annie (Bailey), she is on her way to pay a call on a troubled household that consists of Dympna (Twamley), an unstable woman who lives with her daughter Geraldine (Kinsella), who has a baby. Once there, the two social workers try to keep things calm and understand the family's troubles, however things and up getting out of hand.

Inspired by the memoir Wednesday's Child by Shane Dunphy, this short drama provides a hard-hitting insight into the world of social care by revealing the challenges they have to face. Marie has been assigned to work on a case that is very difficult due to Dympna' behaviour and Geraldine's lack of support. As the family is also facing financial worries and is living in a filthy and untidy home, the situation appears to be hopeless. There is a great deal of serious drama and the atmosphere is downbeat throughout, giving little indication that things are going to work out well.

Twamley is the one who stands out the most, with her tense performance as a troubled individual who is struggling to pay her bills. She comes across as short-tempered, aggressive and seems to have mental issues. Kinsella plays her daughter quite convincingly and her character keeps to herself and ignores the social worker's attempts to reach out. Her behaviour makes it clear that she is fed up with dealing with problems. Harvey and Bailey are great in their roles and generally the acting is very strong.

As the director of photography, Evan Barry provides beautiful cinematography and Seamus Harvey develops a dramatic score that adds significant value to the film.

This is a poignant and distressing story that explores social care services and dysfunctional families and also looks into mental health, child protection and domestic violence. It brings the viewer into a situation that shows what social workers have to deal with and it does so rather vividly. It is not a pleasant viewing, however it deserves attention due to the themes that it contains.