This documentary, about the director’s mother’s alcoholism and its impact, makes vividly apparent the problem with most documentaries. If it has been anyone other than her daughter Myrid Carten making the film, it’s clear Nuala Carten would not have participated. But director Myrid Carten made the choice to be a daughter first, telling her mother she will not include footage of her drunk nor that she’ll question why she became so overwhelmed by her addiction. This consideration is wonderful from a daughter, but inappropriate from a journalist aiming to get to the bottom of a story. On the other hand, without that consideration this documentary would not exist at all. It’s a problem that cannot be solved, so instead the main value of A Want in Her is the close attention it pays to these troubled lives.
Only Irish audiences will be able to understand that the family lives in an Irish-speaking part of Donegal, and therefore their closest cities are Derry and Belfast (so, over a border). Nuala’s addiction is so serious that the movie begins with Myrid travelling over from London to arrange for her mother to be sectioned (that is to say, committed to a mental institution against her will) again. If that wasn’t messy enough, she discovers her estranged uncle Danny has resurfaced after an absence of some years and made himself at home in a disused part of the family homestead, which belongs to another uncle, Kevin. Danny clearly has addiction issues of his own and spends most of his time smoking in bed, so wrapped up in duvets that he’s barely visible. Kevin himself is the kind of anxious middle-aged man who has meant to get around to things for so long he hasn’t noticed he is no longer young. In this encaged environment Myrid does all she can do, which is film in the inside of the house as if it’s a cityscape, seemingly flying a drone into the ceiling corners so we can examine every inch of this haunted house. And haunted indeed it is, as slowly becomes apparent even before Nuala is released into Kevin’s care, care which he doesn’t have the fortitude to provide even as none of the older generation wish to burden Myrid more than they already have. The Nuala we see is more or less holding herself together, and happy to reenact various aspects of her worst addictive behaviour for the film. One of these includes re-staging when Myrid saw Nuala passed out on a bench on the main shopping street in Belfast, only Myrid left her there. She left her mother there as she presumably realised she had pretty good material for a documentary here.
Harsh as that sounds, that isn’t the criticism. There is indeed pretty good material for a documentary here, but by working as a daughter Ms. Carten hampered her abilities as a director. Perhaps she should have found someone else to work with, who might have been willing to hold Nuala to account or more directly figure out why this family here feels so powerless over its problems. While this never quite teeters into family therapy, it’s closer to that than is appropriate for something good enough to be shown at Sheffield DocFest. That said, it’s always a pleasure to see a daughter get the measure of her mother, and it’s always a pleasure to hear a family casually speaking Irish together. But unfortunately A Want in Her wanted more.
A Want In Her recently played at the Sheffield DocFest.
Learn more about the film at the Sheffield site for the title.
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