Directed by : Martin McDonagh

You used to be nice. Or did you never used to be ? Oh, God. Maybe you never used to be.

Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan in 'The Banshees of Inisherin'

Spoilers ahead..


Set in early 1920s with the backdrop of Civil War at an isolated looking Irish island. Padraic Suilleabhain (Colin Farrell) just learns that his closest/best friend Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) doesn't wanna talk to him anymore because he wants to spend the final remaining years of his life doing something useful which is creating music that will be remembered forever. And also, Colm feels Padraic is too dull a person to be friends with. 

Its a super interesting premise, just imagine you are best friend to someone for many years and suddenly one day he/she tells you that you are dull, and not interesting person to hang out with. Just hearing that would tear you apart because you would have been so emotionally invested with this person by now. 

The first half of the movie deals with this thought in a very dark comedy tone using lovely background folkish score, Padraic is taken aback by this sudden decision of Colm and he's not someone who would accept it easily. We see Padraic trying all his ways to get the friendship going again, in one funny scene he checks Calendar to see its 1st April and he happily goes to meet Colm suggesting 'you were fooling around, right?'. Ofcourse to his disappointment, Colm declines. 

The sudden change of tone in the narrative (I hadn't seen the trailer) is where the film loses its mark for me and totally goes down. Colm actually chopping off his fingers to make it a point to Padraic how serious he is about him not wanting to talk to him at all, was really absurd and made no sense to me. The absurdity only increases as he chops all his fingers off. For someone who wants to be remembered as a musician, why would you really do that and make it tough to manage playing music on your own. 

Had they continued the tussle between Padraic trying to get Colm talking and Colm pushing him away all the time, it would have worked even with it getting little repetitive. But the route they take totally took my interest from film away. 

I do get it that the main theme at play is loneliness at a time of war and also how war is used as a metaphor with the way Padraic and Colm fight each other to the extent that one kills off other's precious animal (a donkey) and in return other burns the house down. Basically, just trying to show how war affects everyone and brings nothing good. Even those who aren't directly involved like Dominic Kearney (an excellent Barry Keoghan), son of an abusive policeman, used to like the 'nice' Padraic, but the new 'bitter' Padraic he just can't stand. Same goes for Padraic's sister Siobhan Suilleabhain (Kerry Condon) who feels sandwiched in this war between Padraic and Colm, to an extent she just leaves taking up the job offer she got, and probably she won't return back ever. 

The gore horror route 2nd half takes sure may work for others.. I just couldn't stand it.. I am okay with the ending though, its understandable that the war ends with nothing resolved, rather they just destroyed each other for unwanted reasons. Also, I didn't mind that we are never told reasons behind Colm behaving like that, there are hints that he is suffering from some depression whenever he speaks to Priest. 

Other than Barry Keoghan, it was Colin Farrell whose performance I totally enjoyed. Kerry Condon was pretty good too in her supporting act.

Overall, The Banshees of Inisherin is one of those films that I felt I was going to love at mid-way with many hilarious moments, but after that there was just nothing to like just because of the manner the story is told. 

My Rating : 5/10