Sadly, the physics of growing up demand that cupping bee-stung bosoms is a privilege not a right. In addition to the eternal laundry duties she shoulders when her mother goes to hospital, Maeve must negotiate a balance between local Lotharios, a possible molester and the various crises that arise between best friends Ruth, Claire and Orla before she can properly claim womanhood.
Full marks to debut director Marian ‘Sister of Aidan’ Quinn for her recreation of a barely recognisable pre-boom world of meetings under Cleary’s clock and nights out at the Grove in Raheny. Her gently comic, award-winning screenplay avoids such clichés as abusive clergymen preferring the fun, vaguely Sapphic friendships among adolescent girls to dank oppression. This lively chatter of chicks share far more DNA with the carefree shoestring dress girls of today than The Magdalene Sisters though beside even their tweeniest rivals – think Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging – they’re haplessly wide-eyed.
In this respect perhaps Ms. Quinn has fashioned her nostalgic ethnograph a little too effectively. From PJ Dillon’s crisp cinematography to Gerry Leonard’s evocative score, the microcosm depicted in 32A is so specific, so detailed, so lovingly resurrected, it’s difficult to imagine how it might court an audience beyond 40-something gals from Dublin 13.