The Banshees of Inisherin

 2022, d. Martin McDonagh - Disney+

In 1923 on an Irish isle, Pádraic (a very shaggy Colin Farrell) calls upon his best mate Colm (Brendan Gleeson) to go round pub way, so. Colm doesn't answer, even though Pádraic can see him thru the window, just sitting there. Down at pub, people ask Pádraic where Colm is, since they're always together... are they rowing?  Pádraic doesn't think so, but he questions it.  When Colm eventually turns up at pub (there's nothing else to do round there) he's not speaking to Pádraic and when he does, he tells him to just leave him be.  This vexes Pádraic greatly.  Eventually Colm tells Pádraic that he's direly boring, and life's too short for him to be wasting time listening to Pádraic's tales of what he found in donkey shite.  Colm just wants to be left alone to write music, to leave something lasting in the world, to be remembered (perhaps as something other than a bore himself).

What follows is a darkly comic tale of isolated small-town life, of people who are close to each other, too close perhaps, whether they want to be or not.  The stress of an Irish civil war encroaches from across the water, which seems to be affecting the mindset of the community, though few seek to acknowledge it.  The simple life they've known for generations isn't so simple anymore when the gunshots and cannons can be heard echoing across the straight. 

Pádraic's sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) questions whether Colm might be depressed, but Colm rejects this summary, yet his outbursts of self harm directed at Pádraic seem as much a cry for help as a warning to keep away.  Things escalate as Colm threatens further self harm if Pádraic speaks to him ever again, and escalate further when Pádraic experiences multiple losses at once, indirectly related.

The tonal balance McDonagh manages with this production is astounding, at once hilarious and heartbreaking.  There's an innate humour in the Irish brogue and natural small town interactions, full of politeness and civility though only genuine half the time, which even as things get dark, still remains.  The countryside vistas are lovingly and gorgeously shot - the living seems both drearily simple and yet quite tranquil.

What could have been an oversimplified two-hander with Farrell and Gleeson is instead a well constructed microcosm of personalities, each superficially recognizable.  Colm and Pádraic were likely superficial characters the day before this story began as well, but they both become far more interesting as a result of the events of the film.  

I sometimes wonder, if like Pádraic, I too am dull, that people no longer want to be around me. There's a very specific pain, the pain of rejection, confused thoughts and not understanding that come with that situation.  Pádraic's pain is relatable.  

But so too is Colm's.  Clearly in his later years of life, his contemplating the meaning of it all has left him with serious doubts, depression, and anxieties.  He's afraid of death, but he's more afraid of not knowing the purpose of life, and he focuses all his bitterness about it towards poor Pádraic who he knows doesn't understand and only becomes more frustrated in his attempts to explain it.  I think Colm, in his depression, but also as an emotionally reserved man, wants to be free of the stress of caring, the stress of being cared for.  If nobody cares if he dies then he's not hurting anyone.  Yet he's angry at himself for still caring.  It's a simple, simple story, but with deep emotional complexities.