Actors Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson have teamed up again with director Martin McDonagh in ‘The Banshees of Inisherin,’ a dark comedy about the rift between two friends.
Written and directed by Martin McDonagh and set against the backdrop of the Irish Civil War, Farrell and Gleeson’s friendship comes to an abrupt and bloody end, leaving them both facing a rocky road. Have the three managed to create magic again, 14 years after first getting along with ‘In Bruges’? Here’s what the critics are saying.
What is it about
“Banshees,” in any case, is about an intensely local conflict, between Padraic (Colin Farrell), an outgoing cow herder, and Colm (Brendan Gleeson), a melancholy fiddler. They drank together almost every afternoon at the local shebeen for as long as anyone can remember, until Colm abruptly and unilaterally declared the end of their friendship. “I don’t love you anymore,” he tells Padraic, who responds with hurt disbelief.
Colm is pretty serious. Every time Padraic dares to talk to him, he swears he will cut off one of his fingers. This shocking and irrational threat – a violinist promising to part ways with his art – gives the story an unhealthy momentum. Even after the numbers start flying — Colm throws them out of Padraic’s cottage — it’s hard for Padraic or the audience to accept what’s going on, let alone understand it.
[NYT]
Farrell and Gleeson always go well together
Farrell plays Pádraic’s grief as both touching and pathetic, his voice threatening to reach an octave only dogs can hear, while Gleeson’s deadpan demeanor makes Colm’s fleeting moments of compassion all the more striking in comparison. Neither character seems to grasp the fact that they are caught in a pattern of expectation, destined to hurt and be hurt until, say, they have no fingers left. Their ignorance is the key.
[The Atlantic]
The Banshees of Inisherin is a silent film that, in the spirit of the mythical creatures of its title, moans loudly and miserably, and yet McDonagh artfully injects a steady levity into its material. This deft balance is epitomized by Farrell, who plays Pádraic both as an unambitious fool who has little to offer (apart from reporting on the state of his donkey’s feces), and as a fundamentally kind and loyal man unable to wickedness or unprovoked selfishness. One moment Pádraic is humiliated by the idiot Dominic for not knowing the word “hit”, and the next he delivers cutting lines to Colm (the best of which involves tango). Farrell brilliantly conveys Pádraic’s inherent goodness while deftly evoking his evolution into a boosted and abandoned individual driven to extreme ends. Moreover, his interaction with Gleeson – who shapes Colm like a giant sodden slab of sadness, distress and spite – is reinforced by a shared sense of their history together and the unbalanced weight of their current catastrophic decisions.
[The Daily Beast]
Farrell and Gleeson are just wonderful. Gleeson as the stoic instigator of this bizarre Cold War conveys both a lifetime of frustration and an ultimate kindness of character despite it all. Farrell plays the confused, endlessly optimistic guy who begins to harden as his bitterness about the situation grows. Condon and Keoghan are also brilliant, with the latter delivering one of the edgiest performances in years.
[Nerdist]
Don’t sleep on Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan
What drives “The Banshees of Inisherin” and saves it from stiffness is the weight of the performance. In the ox-like Colm, thanks to Gleeson, we glimpse ruminating despair, and Farrell adds Pádraic to his gallery of heroes so unhappy they lose all pretension to heroics. The film, however, belongs to Condon, familiar to viewers of “Rome” and “Better Call Saul,” on TV, and now, finally, given its cinematic due.
[The New Yorker]
The actors couldn’t be better. Besides the sensational Condon who should lead the race for Best Supporting Actress, there’s the brilliant Barry Keoghan as the so-called village idiot who reveals his secret heart to Siobhan in a scene that takes you away a piece.
[ABC]
TL;DR
“The Banshees of Inisherin” is a rich and moving journey, full of agony, dry Irish wit and big haunting questions. If it’s answers you’re looking for, however, you won’t find them on Inisherin.
[Associate Press]
McDonagh is a modern-day Mozart and here he has composed an awe-inspiring tale of obsession
[Evening Standard]
Watch the trailer
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