"The Banshees of Inisherin" reunites filmmaker Martin McDonagh with his two stars, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell. We figured it was a good time to revisit their earlier classic, McDonagh's breakthrough, "In Bruges."
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN (A) - Martin McDonagh presents a fitting bookend to 2008's "In Bruges," once again penning bittersweet banter for his Irish everymen, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, who pick up effortlessly from where they left off 14 years earlier. Here they are longtime friends on the fictional island off the coast of Ireland (set 100 years ago) until one of them abruptly decides not to be friends anymore.
Gleeson is grumpy Colm, who fiddles around on fiddle and lives alone with his dog. Farrell is dimwitted Padraic, whose small-talk finally drives Colm to his wits' end. Padraig, who lives with his sensible sister, Siobhan (Kerry Condon) and a beloved donkey, just can't accept the breakup and pesters his pal for an explanation. Colm won't budge, and he threatens to start cutting off his fingers if Padraic won't permanently go away.
Padraic is emotionally gutted, and Farrell's facial contortions carry the drama from beginning to end. The easy humor -- McDonagh's script is packed with pristine dialogue -- slowly gives way to dark melodrama. Few can juggle the yin and yang of comedy and gory intrigue like McDonagh can. He creates an intricate, intimate world, full of colorful side characters that provide a Greek chorus.
Gleeson's solemnity is a powerful weapon, and Farrell's energy drives the narrative toward a grim anti-climax. McDonagh, working every four or five years, was good but not great with 2012's pulpy "Seven Psychopaths" and 2017's minor-key "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri." Both of those could be mannered and showy. But in "Inisherin," McDonagh creates a complex, mature story grounded in reality and tinged with absurdity. It is satisfying on every level.
IN BRUGES (2008) (A) - McDonagh splashed with this perfect tale of two Irish hitmen lying low in, of all places, the charming resort town of Bruges, Belgium. Farrell plays Ray, a wise-cracking tough nut who is racked with guilt after his first hit claims an innocent bystander.
Gleeson's Ken also feels guilty because he recruited Ray to the trade and must answer to a mean boss, Harry, played with Cockney venom by Ralph Fiennes, in a role that two decades earlier would have gone to Michael Caine. Ken and Ray bide their time awaiting orders from Harry. Ken enjoys the tourist's perspective of the precious town's historic marvels, while Ray feels trapped in hell. (Or is this purgatory?)
Ray falls for a local woman, Chloe (a fetching Clemence Poesy), who runs a scam of her own related to a movie crew that includes a racist dwarf. To describe any more of the plot would be to ruin the joy of peeling back the layers so delicately nested by McDonagh.
Ray is in a perpetual state of credulity and/or bile -- Farrell's forte -- while Ken calmly awaits his fate, "Godot"-like. Their verbal interplay crackles and zings, each to his own level of self-loathing at any given moment. When Fiennes' menacing mob boss finally appears in person, things take a dire turn. The ending is bloody but poetic. (McDonagh is suprisingly assured behind the camera.) This was an artful debut that was hard to match -- until now.
BONUS TRACK
From "In Bruges," the Dubliners with "Raglan Road":
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