Martin McDonaugh’s latest film, ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’, begins as a look at the dissolution of a friendship between two men in a small Irish island community in the early 1900s. Colm Doherty, played by Brendan Gleeson, tells his long-time friend Pádraic Súilleabháin, played by Colin Farrel, that he’s not going to speak to him any longer. Súilleabháin is perplexed. “Are we having a row?” he asks. “No” Dohert replies. “I just don’t like you anymore.” After a moment’s pause Súilleabháin says meekly “But you liked me yesterday.” This moment was emphasized in the trailer, and appropriately so, because this is the wave-length that the film runs on for much of its run.
For in small-town communities “rows”, invented or otherwise, can take on larger meaning, and in McDonaugh’s film this is a moment of both comic absurdity – not laugh out loud comedy mind you but tragi-comedy – and a depressing metaphor for the dissolution of relationships that even a day before seemed so strong. The latter a particularly strong theme tied to Ireland’s civil war at the time, which echoes literally in the distance from the mainland.
Having this knowledge of Ireland’s place in history at this time adds a lot for the viewer, and there’s enough subtext to make it fairly clear to the average viewer. Even if you don’t get the film on that level though, it’s undoubtedly still relatable on a personal level. Doherty and Súilleabháin’s fight becomes the talk of the town, in a town where donkeys are a worthy topic of lengthy conversation. This talk has ripples and in many ways affects the other villagers, in the same way a fight between co-workers or friends can impact a friend group.
Likewise it speaks a lot to male friendships in particular, and the toxic masculinity that so many men have internalized. Súilleabháin’s sister, Siobhán, played by Kerry Condon, does her best to be the mature one and help the two men; however, their stubbornness, and years of choosing to internalize their feelings instead of expressing them, only drives the two men further apart, and drives the stakes ever higher.
Dominic Kearney, played by Barry Keoghan, has rightly received much praise for his role as a young man whose doltish nature belies the troubles and tragedies in his life. Kearney is clearly set up to represent the next generation of young men, following our protagonists’ generation. Kearney, much like the young soldiers fighting across the Bay, is simply trying to find a place in this harsh world where he controls very little of his life, and is all too often at the whims of those older than him. His fate seems to rest in forces beyond his, a theme in this film for sure, which provides increasing importance to what seemed ‘only yesterday’ to be perhaps a simple row.
While the performances and the story itself is beautiful and incredibly impactful, what really helps draw out the themes is the incredible setting and stark beauty captured so wonderfully by cinematographer Ben Davis. Working alongside McDonaugh’s direction, Davis does an incredible job of showing the scale of the island, while emphasizing the isolation of this community within it. This is very true to the Aran Islands themselves, the real Irish islands on which Inisheerin is surely based around and where much of the film was shot. You are so often enticed by the shots to visit it could be a tourist advertisement, but Davis and McDonaugh do such an excellent job of highlighting the island’s disconnection from the mainland and the insular nature of the community, you likely don’t feel called to live there.
Colin Farrell in the film THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN. Photo by Jonathan Hession. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved.
McDonaugh’s known for bleak “comedies” such as ‘In Bruges’ and ‘Seven Psycopaths’, and while there were perhaps literally two laugh moments, McDonaugh’s ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ feels like it’s more than just an excuse to mix violence and comedy. In fact by tamping down both, McDonaugh’s found a way to tell an incredibly meaningful story, that is perhaps too subtle for some, but if you connect with it you’ll find a power and resonance in the story that will stay with you for sometime to come.
See photos of the Aran Islands which inspired McDonaugh’s film ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’.
