REVIEW: THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

4/5

In Inisherin.

114 Mins. Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon & Barry Keoghan. Director: Martin McDonagh. 

Are they rowing again? Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Irish icons 'In Bruges'. Putting that place and Martin McDonagh on the map with his directorial debut before 'Seven Psychopaths', the 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' Oscar glory and a marriage to a 'Fleabag' and the world's greatest writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Now the three reunite for the tragicomedy, spiritual sequel of 'The Banshees Of Inisherin', like the lifelong friends that they are. But there's a severed finger in the pint and more tragic (like Brendan's 2021) 'Macbeth' like foreboding than Farrell's 'Lobster' boiling, biblical proportions of 'The Killing Of A Sacred Deer' with Yorgos Lanthimos. Oh, and the best young actor of our generation Barry Keoghan is here too. Reuniting with this Penguin like 'The Batman'. But the real draw to Inisherin like Bruges may just be the loving sister act of Kerry Condon and one heartbreaking scene that shows us it's not just the perfect partnership of the two leads that faces an impasse in the absurdity of all this black humour. 

"Everything was fine yesterday" for this Toronto (if you want a nice story this Christmas, Google Colin Farrell at the 2007 festival. It involves a homeless man, camping equipment and a night in a hotel) and Venice Film Festival favourite that is one of the best films of last year, despite the Fox Searchlight and Film4 (won't be long before it's on the telly) picture only streaming on Disney + last week (cue the, "I haven't seen it (or you) since last year" Dad jokes). But today, it's all gone to pot. Despite Farrell winning the 79th Venice Volpi Cup for Best Actor and McDonagh the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay (expect the Globes (a leading eight nominations and most since Gleeson's 'Cold Mountain' in '04) and Academy to follow suit). The tail-gunning end of the Irish Civil War in 1923 serves as an across the sea backdrop to the end of a friendship. Gleeson's folk singer and increasingly fiddly violin player Colm Doherty doesn't want to be friends with Farrell's drinking buddy Pádraic Súilleabháin any more. And as one character puts it, "what is he? 14?" But in the Winter of his life he goes cold due to his friend who loves his donkey like Forrest did Jenny's "dullness" (I'd have a swift half with you, Col). He doesn't want to waste his remaining years with him. Working on music and writing a swan song for his old pal. And that on the surface feels like all she wrote...or he played.

Yet this moving metaphor for the war and literal reflection on any relationship we've loved and lost reveals more in its macabre and madcap nature. There will be blood and hell to pay in this brimstone tale by the solitary sitting room fire, as we desperately look in from the window. Trying to find our way in through all the mistakes we've made and bonds we've broken. Sheep-shearing, this folky tale sears through you with a snakebite pint of lager with and blood woe. Glum and great, Gleeson continues the 'Calvary' of his legend. His character just wants to be remembered. And how could we ever forget this actor? But how come Colin Farrell is always on the outside looking in when it comes to the best actors? He's one of the greatest of our generation. Even when you don't recognize him. His outstanding Oswald Cobblepot looking more like 'Curb Your Enthusiasm's' Richard Kind, but with enough beak to literally waddle to its own HBO Max spin-off series for the 'True Detective' star. Doing his best work collaborating with McDonagh and Lanthimos, the indie and blockbuster tweener is clearly having his best year in Gotham and Ireland, with acclaim in Ron Howard's 'Thirteen Lives' and the science-fiction drama 'After Yang'. And it's time we all saw it and them. 

A long way from 'Bruges' and jokes about "filming midgets" and "c### kids" (both still classic, even in this day and age), there's more to this movie than the landmark 'Harry Potter' and 'Fantastic Beasts' stars. A class cast of lovely locals line it like the bar of your local pub during happy hour. But it's two supporting stars and their pivotal scenes that truly power this home. Ever since he killed your sacred deer and broke our hearts in 'Dunkirk', Barry Keoghan has been on one. Stealing the show in big pictures like 'The Green Knight', Marvel's 'Eternals' and one as a classic character reveal and a dynamic deleted scene that we simply won't spoil. And this one too. As in his 30th year, he really is as The Irish Times names him, one of Ireland's greatest actors. Just like the dual, duelling stars and the soul of this story Kerry Condon. 

All flowers on this theatrical stage for the youngest actress to play Ophelia in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of 'Hamlet', who started her career in Ireland's 'Ballykissangel', just like Farrell. You may know her as Iron and Spider-Man's reliable voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y in many Marvel movies. But by this film for Friday, her own voice will be heard like a banshee. Caring and confronting, this love letter to all we've lost and those ties that will bind us from ever reaching out again, offers you a hand to all this. Knocking at the door of our collective despair like a couple of chubby fingers. The last time Gleeson tried to warn Farrell of the weary things to come, he left it all on the floor of a cobbled street in 'Bruges'. If we don't pay heed to what's laid bare here, we're all bound to walk the same path. One paved in a raw regret we won't see coming unless we take that fork in the road ahead. Therefore, if this doesn't make friends with Oscar, I will scream like a banshee. Watch this for feck’s sake! TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'In Bruges', 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri', 'The Killing Of A Sacred Deer'.