Kindness Versus Silence

 Who Knew It Would Lead to Blood?

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) – It’s 1923 on the island of Inisherin, a tiny dot off the west coast of Ireland.  With no warning, Colm Doherty announces he no longer wants to be friends with the younger Padraic Sullieabhain.  Padraic is stunned and keeps bothering his older friend to learn why.  The results are dramatic and disturbing.

Directed by Martin McDonagh

Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon

Why I Liked It – A brilliant, character driven story that refuses to play by the expected rules.

If you like movies with that are easy to follow, require little thinking and wrap everything up neatly by the time the credits roll:

This movie ain’t for you.

I’ve enjoyed Gleeson and Farrell in a range of movies before, and they were incredible in “In Bruges”, so I was all in on this one from the first trailer.  Then I discovered that it’s the same director as well. (McDonagh also directed the brilliant “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”)  All the better.

And they all delivered for me.

Colm and Padraic have been friends for as long as anyone can remember.  They go everywhere together.  Not that there’s many places to go, or things to do on Inisherin.  As much as his sister Siobhan tries to reassure him, Padraic is dull.  He lacks imagination and ambition.  When Colm finally pulls the plug on the friendship, he points to one chat that lasted two hours and involved…well, I’ll let you discover it on your own.  It’s Padraic’s inability to imagine any reason for his friend to abandon him that makes him so persistent in pursuit.  And that persistence that leads them all to a dark place.

The black humor of the movie sets the perfect tone here.  Weaving moments of easy delight into the darkening world as the conflict between the two men moves deeper into madness, it’s a challenging story to tell.  Tip too far into the humor and you diminish the pain of the two men and Siobhan.  Let the story sway too far into darkness, and this story would become painful beyond endurance.  You can forget the clean Hollywood ending as well.  The final scene will leave some with a feeling that nothing has been resolved.  I would argue that there is a resolution, the action resolves into a new relationship that is very, very different from the one that went before.

Lift a pint for movies that make us think, make us feel, and remind us that the world is a messy place.

Rating – **** Recommended