Film Review: The Banshees of Inisherin

 

Tragedy and comedy don’t often mix well, but Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” offers a rare and wondrous fine exception.

Here we get a male breakup story that confuses, shocks, depresses and amuses (yes, all four), and leads to a story that can’t help but captivate.

On the fictional island of Inisherin off the west coast of Ireland, the sounds of the Irish civil war can be heard. It’s 1923, and war or no, life goes on in this remote place where going to the pub is what the men look forward to most.

Every day at 2 p.m., dairy farmer Pádraic (Colin Farrell) stops at the house of buddy Colm (Brendan Gleeson) for the walk to the pub. Pádraic is a young, simple man, who allows his animals (notably a donkey) free range in the house, much to his sister Siobhan’s disgust.

But this day Colm (Brendan Gleeson), a much older man who writes music, plays the fiddle and feels his age, does not answer. Instead, he just sits in his chair, smoking.

Pádraic leaves, puzzled, and heads for the pub, where he finds Colm, who gets up and goes outside when he sees Pádraic.

Siobhan (Kerry Condon) offers a reason: “Maybe he just don’t like you no more.” (She knows more than she tells him: Colm has told her he just finds Pádraic “dull,” and that he’s tired of his “aimless chatting.”)

There’s another young man, Dominic (Barry Keoghan), who wants to escape his brutish father and has designs on Siobhan.

But when Pádraic won’t take no for an answer, Colm gives a grisly ultimatum: He will cut off one of his fingers every time Pádraic tries to talk to him – and proves it when Pádraic does just that.

Now that’s upping the ante a bit more than anyone expected, but if McDonagh knows anything, it’s how to write, especially for these two stars, who reunite for the first time since “In Bruges.”

McDonagh’s rather gruesome story is more than a bromance gone wrong. The title itself indicates a link to Gaelic folklore and a female spirit warning of impending death, and the other-worldly music fits right in. Gleeson illustrates the very real fear of being forgotten after you’re gone.

“The Banshees of Inisherin” is a strange but wonderful film, which got a 15-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. It is likely to be nominated for major awards.