In The Banshees of Inisherin, director Martin McDonagh reunites Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell for the first time since In Bruges (2008) as friends on a remote island off the coast of west Ireland during the 1920s. When Colm (Gleeson) suddenly puts an end to their friendship, Pádraic (Farrell) struggles to understand the reason and mightily attempts to repair it, but his efforts only create more tension between the two.
The premise is simple, the setting is stark, the characters are few, but this is easily one of the best movies that I’ve seen this year. I am, of course, a complete sucker for anything Irish and since spending a blissful ten days on the Irish Wild Atlantic Way this summer, I’ve been consuming as much Irish cinema and literature as possible. Ireland’s weather is brisk, its sea is frigid, and its lush beauty is matched only by the people living in it. Banshees showcases all of this – Inisherin is a fictional island but very much inspired by, and partly filmed at, Inishmore, the bigger of the three Aran islands. Thousands of people, myself included, visit Inishmore every day throughout the summer, but when they are gone, the island is populated by a little over 750 people. The island itself is so unchanged that you can stand on any given point on the island and imagine yourself in another era.
Throughout the film, we are reminded by occasional explosions and gunfire, that the Irish Civil War in raging beyond the island’s boundaries. But these also act as a punctuated reminder that our two central characters are engaged in personal civil war – and it’s just as meaningless and confusing as the real one.
By the film’s beginning, we know that Colm has stopped speaking to Pádraic, but like the latter, we don’t know why. His sister Siobhán, lovingly played by a charming Kerry Condon, asks him if he and Colm have been rowing. Colm says they have not, but then he quickly questions his own assertion – “Have we been rowing?” he asks himself. By the time two more characters echo the same question, the bit becomes comedic. Farrell is disarming and childlike in his confusion and we are so immediately drawn to him – and those expressive dark eyebrows – that by the time Colm coldly explains, “I just don’t like you no more,” it stings.
And thus begins the slow pressure cooker of tension between the two in which Pádraic tries to nudge and cajole his way back into Colm’s good graces. The film spends a lot of time showing us the efforts he makes – he is shot in long tracking shots to show just how much land he covers in a day to get to his friend. He takes long walks to Colm’s house to invite him to the pub every day at 2:00. He buys him pints and waits at the table. He gets advice from his sister and his only other friend, a troubled young man named Dominic, played quite convincingly by Barry Keoghan. He sits with his donkey, Jenny, for solace – all, incidentally, some of the most heartfelt moments in the film.
But to no avail. Colm finally tells Pádraic that they’re getting on in life and he doesn’t wish to spend the rest of it with someone so dull. And that’s the crux of the problem – Pádraic is a nice guy but dull. No one on the island seems to disagree with this assessment, including his sister, who claims that all of them “are fecking boring.” After all, Pádraic apparently can muse for two hours about what he finds in his donkey’s “shite.” But it’s no reason to not be friends with a man – and no one quite understands why Colm suddenly takes this stance.
The tragicomedy takes a dark turn when Colm threatens to cut off a finger each time Pádraic talks to him. And this ultimatum sets off a set of escalating and dramatic events that go beyond just the two men. Pádraic’s niceness is tested, loved ones get hurt, and Colm’s coldness just becomes more so – and the one “banshee” of the island, old Mrs. McCormick, is there to herald it all. Just as innocent people are killed in war, the shrapnel from their empty breakup affects many. An island is simply not as insular as we may believe. This character study about what we will do to save or break a relationship strikes the perfect balance between melancholy and humor and is worth every minute.
Rated R with a run time of 1 hr 49 min
