Prying Ourselves from Cages of Loyalty with Slippery fingers?
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
A film by Martin McDonagh
Streaming on HBO MAX
Review by Erik Thompson
In Irish mythology, a Banshee is a harbinger of death, OK? So think twice about watching the English playwright Martin McDonagh’s new film. But “Banshee” has a ring to it, right? Is it as “lovely” as a timeless Celtic fiddle? Or is that a frightening howl I’m hearing in an Irish storm?
Well, one of the two estranged friends in this story is wondering about beauty and death and music as well. The older friend, the “fat fiddler” Colm, is in despair. But is it that kind suffered by seers and poets? Or mere wannabees? Colm seems unsure. So is his loyal friend’s loyal sister, played by the celebrated Kerry Condon. The triangled sis can’t bear how hard her simple brother is taking Colm’s naked rejection. And yet, can she understand it too? (Speaking of celebrations, this brings another Best Picture Oscar nod for McDonagh. As with his recent “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”- also bloody. Also haunting. Also loving. But with Frances McDormand in it.)
Friend Colm has beautiful masks decorating his tiny house that clings to the sea, and we wonder if he’s made them? Or is he determined to stop wearing them? Colm seems unsure about a lot of things. Or is he terribly sure? His younger friend, whom he no longer wants to speak to, is also unsure. He’s played by Colin Farrell. After this performance, Farrell can no longer be called a mere movie star. His gentle Pedraich quivers with rejection. Hugging his miniature donkey inside the house doesn’t seem to help. (The love of animals plays an increasing role in the plot.) His awkward, agitated face is as painful as looking in the mirror. How did bold and lovely Colin Farrell manage to look so small? The rejecting friend Colm is played by an aging Brendan Gleason. (His son Domnhnall was in Harry Potter. Love how they spell their names over there.) These two Irish artists, Gleason and Farrell, are reunited from another allegorical McDonagh film with medieval blood on its hands, the less melancholy but more violent, “In Bruges” from way back in 2008. Now, the Irish swearing in “In Bruges” is better, because it’s funnier, but there are lots of “fecking” in The Banshees for ya. (“In Bruges” also has a hilariously hateable Ralph Fiennes going for it. As does the new film by McDonagh’s brother John Michael “The Forgiven”. Oh, and Bro John Michael also made “Calvary” with Brendan Gleason some years back- also mysterious, bloody, Catholic, and lovingly told. Hmmmmm.)
Speaking of blood, Banshees have it all over their fingers.
But what kind of blood?
Is it the blood of bitter cruelty?
Self-hatred?
Liberation perhaps?
Or phony liberation?
Or The Blood of The Lamb?
Or is it the blood found at the scene of a small domestic crime?
Or near a shining seam off the rocky coast of west Ireland at the time of the Irish civil war- picked at with a pre-modern tool, revealing heaps of lumpy gold ?
Can’t figure out what to say about this film the morning after. It’s disturbing. But lovingly so. And hating. The love of siblings is there. And the hating of desperation-the kind we feel when trying to pry ourselves from cages of loyalty with slippery fingers.
Perhaps it’s the red blood spilt by captured creatures trying to break free.
Erik,
This is like a poem. Good morning, thank you for sending an energetic morning read for me. Once I’ve seen the film, we might discuss it more fully further . . . Or do you want to write more here after you’ve had the time for it to settle? I will just end by saying that though I like a calm and ordered life where nothing terrible happens, and even excitement is tempered, I think life is underneath terrifying, and awesome.
Laurie
Reflections welcome. BTW the film is streaming on HBO Max and my review has no spoilers.
Oh the deep pleasure of talking about films. Your lyrical review of The Banshees of Inesherin walked me through it again with all of the feelings evoked by watching it. If I thought I understood the power of emotional attachment, this stunning film showed me that I do not. I found it shocking and incomprehensible to see the two friends taking the pursuit and distance process to the level that they evidently needed to go. Even at the end, were they really “quits” as they called it? Truly a lesson in the degree of irrationality to which betrayal and breach of trust can drive us.
Awards will be given for this film, and I especially want to see one for Barry Keoghan whose portray of Dominic, the “dim” one, was as good as acting can get.
I loved that movie. The impossible beauties of less differentiation. On the other hand, my college friend said, “on our next European trip, we are not going to Inisherin.”
Prying Ourselves from Cages of Loyalty? Erik, your title beautifully captures the overarching theme I think. And while the struggle is active in some, others are content to stay within the bounds of the familiar traditions and customs. Is it the innocents who are the weakest that seem to die?