“She never fecking says hello!”
Well the long wait is over! I’ve finally seen The Banshees of Inisherin and should you be seeking a cold, stark, bleak, straight forward black humoured film, you’re in for a treat. Here are your two principal players:
“Padraic Suilleabhain” (Colin Farrell) A simple farmer on the rugged coast of Ireland, Padraic is seemingly content with life surrounded by a subsistence existence, the company of his sister and his one true remaining friend on the island. On the surface, Padraic is the happy face in a small rural community but beneath the exterior beats a somewhat lonely and unhappy man who lives for the regularity of his early morning toil and drinking with his friend at the local pub at 2pm. When faced with the stone cold rejection of his one true friend “I don’t want to be friends with you anymore”, Padraic questions whether he is “dull” or “dim” or “boring” whilst also recognising the starkly obvious: He’s genuinely one of life’s good guys and he cannot comprehend how his best friend is fiercely determined never to speak to him again. Seeking solace and friendship with a troubled and abused young boy (and a donkey he allows to live in the house!), Padraic is slowly and surely deteriorating before life on the island takes a turn for the macabre.
“Colm Doherty” (Brendan Gleeson) Amateur yet passionate fiddle player and folk musician, Colm is very definitely not dying but has a renewed sense of urgency toward a legacy he’ll leave the island in terms of his music and he desperately wants his life to have meaning and “something to show for it”. Cutting off his friend Padraic is seemingly a rational and simple decision as he cannot waste any more time surrounded by his (whisper it) dull company and would rather spend his time alone composing first a new song “The Banshees of the Inisherin” before a raft of others as he enjoys both his life and the legacy that will follow his death. Colm is both manipulated and the manipulator and instigator of the continuing largely unspoken of break in friendship, but unable to find any suitable peace for all, is forced to take matters into his own hands.
Whilst the Padraic character is fairly and squarely on screen, I saw a duality in the Colm character that spoilers won’t allow for but suffice to say, both Farrell and Gleeson are excellent. In support of these headline roles are just 18 further characters in which one is a beautiful pony named “Minnie”! Of the human characters that populate this charming if desolate and rugged Irish Isle is a truly stand out performance from Kerry Condon who returns to a Martin McDonagh directed film but with a much larger role than she enjoyed in 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and is simply brilliant as Padraic’s wantaway sister “Siobhan”. Pat Shortt holds court as local pub owner “Jonjo Devine”, David Pearse excels in his cameo role as the local Priest and Sheila Flitton is astounding as local elder and deliberately ethereal and wraith like figure “Mrs McCormick”. Saving the best supporting role until last, Barry Keoghan impressed me greatly once again (following his portrayal in 2017’s Dunkirk) with a heart breaking performance of exclusion and familial abuse as Padraic’s new friend and drinking buddy “Dominic Kearney”.
Set in 1923 and with the Irish Civil War still continuing just across the small causeway separating the island from the locally known “Mainland”, this is by no means a laugh out loud comedy but when the comedy does arrive, it’s either cloaked in a continuing dark black humour or the brilliant bitterness that only shocking comedy of this kind can produce. For this, see the examples of Padraic leaping behind the man made walls that score their way through the island, and hoping to avoid the community elder Mrs McCormick or his lament that she “never says fecking hello!” when he does deign to pass her on the roadway instead of hiding. See also the raging argument that Colm causes with the local Priest during confession, forcing the bedraggled man of God to exclaim “you’ll be pure fucked!” in exasperation, and in front of a healthy and building church going congregation!
Aided by a beautiful music score from Coen Brothers regular Carter Burwell and the wide angled cinematography of Ben Davis (who also returns from doing likewise on Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), this is yet another difficult to define comedy from London born Martin McDonagh but perfectly in keeping with his Oscar winner from 2017 and In Bruges from 2008. I’ve been a fully paid up member of his cinematic fan club since this film nearly fifteen years ago and through the various existential prisms of loneliness, death, living a life to be remembered, friendship, depression and the passage of time, McDonagh has written, directed and created an absolute gem once again.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 150 blog articles (with 300+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“Amsterdam” (2022)
Entertaining conspiracy in the land of the one-eyed King.medium.com
“28 Days Later” (2002)
“OK Jim, I’ve got some bad news”.medium.com