Netflix has just added one of the best Irish movies of the decade

The film was Cillian Murphy's first after winning the Oscar for Oppenheimer.

An adaptation of the acclaimed novella of the same name by Claire Keegan (whose story Foster was the basis for the Oscar-nominated An Cailín Ciúin), the movie is set in 1985 in a small Wexford town in the run-up to Christmas.

Murphy plays Bill Furlong, a coal merchant working hard to support his wife, Eileen (Eileen Walsh, Rialto), and their five daughters.

While out doing his coal deliveries early one morning, Bill discovers something at the local convent that shakes him to his very core, causing him to wrestle with both his conscience and his past.

As the quiet family man tries to raise his concerns about the revelation, he realises the extent of the power the Catholic Church has over his community.

Written by Enda Walsh (Hunger), directed by Tim Mielants (Steve) and produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting), Small Things Like These is a notably quiet drama. Cillian Murphy's lead character has very few lines.

Yet, it's this quietness that gives the film its immense power. Mielants and Walsh do stunning work evoking the oppressive, stifling air of a community reluctant to stand up and do the right thing out of fear.

While Bill doesn't have a lot of dialogue, it works brilliantly for the character, someone who struggles to express himself but has intense emotions lurking behind his eyes, a quality Murphy somehow conveys effortlessly.

Despite the drama's quietness, it's so gripping and hypnotic to watch Bill wrestle internally with his big decision.

It helps, too, that Small Things Like These has a great supporting cast.

Watson plays the subtly sinister Mother Superior of the convent, who clashes with Murphy's Bill.

You can read some other rave reviews for the Irish movie below:

Chicago Sun-Times: "With Cillian Murphy’s quiet, almost small and yet grand performance carrying the story every step of the way, Small Things Like These is quite possibly the best movie I’ve seen so far this year."

Empire: "A deliberate film that uses small moments to examine one of the great questions of our time: how good people let bad things happen, and how we might push back against the dark. "

Mark Kermode: "I suspect it may be too low-key for people… but it is a film that whispers its story to you, and I found it very moving."

RogerEbert.com: "[Murphy's] is a marvel of a performance, extremely expressive and yet deeply inward-looking."

San Jose Mercury News: "It is Murphy’s sensitive and impeccable performance and Bill’s weathered countenance and those small yet significant gestures that make Small Things Like These such a quietly major film about extending a helping hand for those in need."

Small Things Like These is streaming on Netflix in Ireland and the UK now.