When Peace Isn't Good Enough

Do people need to fight each other to stay sane? In 2022's The Banshees of Inisherin has a man dissolve his longtime friendship with another for no apparent reason beyond the assertion that the other man is "dull". This simple act sets off an avalanche of misery on a small Irish island in this fascinatingly grim comedy.

Colin Farrell plays Padraic, the dull man, while Brendan Gleeson is Colm, the friend who can't stand him anymore. As Padraic continually asks for explanation, Colm finally vows to cut off his own finger if Padraic speaks to him once again, and then all his lefthand fingers if Padraic persists after that.

The film is set on a fictional Irish island called Inisherin during 1923, near the end of the Irish Civil War. Occasionally one of the characters sees ordnance fire across the water but takes only faint interest in it, never knowing who is firing at whom.

I wonder if writer/director Martin McDonagh thought of the story as taking place in the same reality as The Quiet Man. It's set in the same time period and its depiction of a cosy Irish community in tweed and corduroy has a similar vibe of being just a little too precious to be real. But like The Quiet Man, it is a delight to tarry in this community of big personalities and their petty dramas. The main difference is that The Banshees of Inisherin follows the boring modern tendency to portray police and clergy as pederasts and cowards.

Farrell and Gleeson are both fantastic, especially as both roles require so much subtlety. Colm is both sad and ridiculous, you kind of understand him and you kind of hate him. Padraic's complicated feelings as he's torn between respecting Colm's wishes and needing resolution and clarity--and most of all his friend--result in phases of confusion, anger, and despair.

There are two important supporting characters--Kerry Condon as Padraic's sister and Barry Keoghan as Dominic, a very troubled local boy. I've seen Keoghan in a few films but this is the one that finally showed me why he gets so many accolades. As a vulnerable little punk he is nothing short of astounding. His performance alone is worth watching the movie for but there's plenty else to recommend it, too.

The Banshees of Inisherin is available on Disney+ and HBOMax in various places.

Twitter Sonnet #1654

Above the town a figure views the Yule.
The Shadow watched a million lights below.
Electric joy exempts the man from rule.
Computers broke to reign the thunder glow.
Atlantis lost was found again reduced.
The heavy bucks were sunk in Gummy Rex.
The turtle under Earth had puke induced.
The model Id would fain refrain from sex.
The plain returning cake was flat as pans.
Another heap of butter balanced soy.
A baking bread was worse than plastic cans.
You look to beaches there to find a boy.
The ham was crushed against the stomach hold.
Retired fists remember nothing bold.