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The Banshees of Inisherin Movie Review

The Banshees of Inisherin is a 2022 tragicomedy film directed by Martin McDonagh and starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. It is the best movie of the year.

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“If punching a policeman is a sin

then we may as well pack up and go home“

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It is about a failed friendship between two men when one decides he doesn’t want to hang out with the other anymore, which leads to at first amusing and consequently tragic events. Judging by the premise alone and the strength of the director, I’d had great expectations going into this movie. Those expectations weren’t just met, but they were gloriously exceeded. It is a film that I intend to go back to within a month as it’s that kind of an instantly rewatchable masterpiece.

There is a lot to talk about here, so it is difficult to know where to even start. Let’s begin with the characters. If ever there was a film that made me relate to its characters in its entirety, it is this one. It is a fascinating experience watching a story about two characters who are the polar opposites of one another, yet I found myself in both of these men in almost equal measure, which made me empathize with both of them in a narrative that never vilifies either, but makes great strides to give both opposing views equal merit.

Padraic is inherently childlike in his wide-eyed innocence and inherent goodness of heart. He tries to be nice as he constantly reminds everybody and he is nice, but he is also suffocating in his needy behavior and limited intelligence. He is the type of person who is so comfortable with the confines of his place of living and his humble existence, which to me was highly relatable as I am also someone who finds it hard to change. And just him striving to be on good terms with everyone and finding it impossible to deal with the sudden breaking of his friendship made him very sympathetic.

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On the other end of the spectrum is Colm, a man who’s just had it with not just Padraic, but even the entire village and life itself. He is more on the mysterious side of things as he can be understood differently depending on the viewer, but I have a different reading of him. Yes, there is that apparent disinterest in being with people who are less intelligent or interesting as himself, which honestly was extremely relatable to me, but there is also just the fact that this is an older man who’s had enough and he just wants to be left alone.

He is obviously an introvert who values art (music in his case) more than people, which makes him at odds with his past friend who would talk about the most meaningless of things all day. The film truthfully depicts how small villages operate and how complex friendships can be. As somebody who hails from a smaller town myself, I deeply connected with the movie’s outlook on the confines of small communities and just how punishing living in such communities can be. Colm obviously “settled” with Padraic, so it is very easy to empathize with his plight, but you have Padraic who is so kind and so lovable that Colm’s treatment of him was still unforgivable.

This is the main conflict of the movie, the thematic crux of it. It explores whether or not breaking off longer friendships is the moral thing to do. Do you owe anybody anything or is it okay to think of yourself and what you want to do? Where is the line to be drawn? The individualism on display here bordered on misanthropy, but it is hard not to get where Colm is coming from. These questions that the movie poses are thought-provoking and especially important in an era where extreme individualism and even egotism are clashing with the ever-disappearing ideas of communal life with your neighbors and friends. The fact that the movie is set in the twenties and in a village is crucial as this type of story could never have been told in another time period and especially not in another setting.

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There are so many ideas present in The Banshees of Inisherin, one of which is also the extremely confining lifestyles in villages. Kerry Condon is terrific as the protagonist’s sister and her story is perfectly juxtaposed with the story of her sibling. She is the one who yearns for change and eventually does leave, which is something that somebody like Padraic could not do in a million years.

There is also the strong emphasis on animal rights in this story. I have numerous dogs myself and I do come from a smaller town, so this is yet another area where the film literally spoke to me on the most personal level. There is this one conversation with a priest where we see that in his eyes punching a policeman is somehow worse than being responsible for the death of an animal, which is just the kind of thing that you regularly see in these rural and small areas. But this story treated the animals as they should be treated – with utter kindness and dignity. The donkey is adorable and the dog is so sweet, and they represent the best of Padraic and Colm.

Brendan Gleeson was incredible here. This is one of his best roles and he was perfectly cast. Toward the end he became downright sinister and he played all of these moods brilliantly. But even more memorable is Colin Farrell, who here had his greatest role and he turned out his career-best performance. He played both the confounding and the innocent nature of his character effortlessly, and just watching his facial expressions spoke volumes of the characters’ emotions.

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These are all Irish actors, which was crucial for the story and the movie itself is probably the most Irish film ever made. There is so much humor to be mined from some words and pronunciations with the word “fecking” being brilliantly used for laughs. The comedy of manners in the first act was ingenious and the movie made me laugh multiple times in that first half in particular. The humor is by far the film’s most underappreciated aspect. Yes, it is very much black humor and this is a tragicomedy, but life is both a comedy and a tragedy for the majority of souls, so this type of movie perfectly exemplifies all of the human condition.

The dialogue immaculately captures the differing personalities of the two characters and the colloquialisms were particularly amusing here. The tone is one brimming with at first humor, then discomfort and eventually pure horror. Yes, in the third act the story shifts into a much darker territory that might be off-putting to some and it certainly befuddled me at first, but I quickly got used to it and I’d come to fully appreciate McDonaghs’s sheer originality in storytelling. ‘Three Billboards’ was my favorite movie of 2017, but this might be even better. Thus, McDonagh firmly established himself as one of the best directors we have right now and one of the most underrated.

I also have to commend the technical aspects. The Banshees of Inisherin is one of those pictures that are just perfectly edited and paced. There is never a dull or rushed moment to be found here nor is there a wasted scene. Every minute counts and the movie was consistently riveting. The cinematography is phenomenal as the movie deftly captured the charming, yet monotonous landscapes of Ireland where there is greenery, but no tree to be found anywhere. The island setting accompanied that suffocating mood brilliantly and the film truly can be viewed as a horror story in its third act with even some disturbing slasher imagery on display. It’s a mixture of all these different genres that still never felt disorganized, but somehow actually cogent, which is a clear testament to the ingenuity of McDonagh as a writer-director. The score is also wonderfully traditional and perfectly accompanying its rural setting.

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