Martin McDonagh’s wickedly clever and unexpectedly touching “The Banshees of Inisherin” begins with a sudden death — of a friendship. Padraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson), longtime neighbors on a small island off the coast of Ireland, have been friends for many years, until one day suddenly they aren’t. “I just don’t like you no more,” says a stony Colm, by way of explaining why he’s abruptly begun to avoid Padraic on trips to the island’s only pub. Padraic’s face crumples upon hearing it, like a slip of paper about to be thrown away. “You liked me yesterday,” he says, mystified.
It’s been 20 years since McDonagh, Farrell and Gleeson teamed up for “In Bruges,” a movie that somehow managed to endearingly blend gory violence and quirky character comedy (and left me permanently unable to think of the city in its title without appending a profane adjective) — and what a treat it is to see them together again. “The Banshees of Inisherin” is a touch less gory (just a touch, mind you; don’t bring the kids), but it likewise blends unlikely ingredients into a perfect stew — an Irish one, in this case. Set on the fictional island of Inisherin in 1923, against a backdrop of Irish civil war on the mainland that the island inhabitants don’t seem too concerned about, McDonagh’s tale is both a tiny story of two men, and a larger allegory of what happens when a small disagreement spins out of control.
We don’t learn much about Padraic and Colm’s friendship before the fateful day Colm ends things, and that’s probably because there isn’t much to learn; their kinship came not from shared interests and ideas, but proximity. Padraic, a sweetly uncomplicated man who lives with his sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon) and his beloved miniature donkey Jenny, isn’t the brightest of bulbs, and you can see how anyone might tire of his “aimless clatterin’,” as Colm describes it. Roughly a generation older than Padraic, Colm is having something of an existential midlife crisis; he’s tired of wasting time, and he’ll do almost anything to push his former friend away, including a few things that might horrify the squeamish.
McDonagh creates a world on that tiny island, where the hills look like green patchwork and the sunsets are a glorious pale pink. This is a place where everyone knows everyone’s business — “It’s an island,” says a priest, “word gets around” — and each face tells a story: the woman in the post office who lives for news of her neighbors; the men in the pub who speak like a lilting Greek chorus; the elderly woman with a dried-apple face and corncob pipe, whose presence seems to indicate a curse.
And the two actors at the center — ably supported by Condon’s quiet, knowing Siobhan — give a master class in character. Gleeson, his voice like a bracing wind, is an immovable mountain of determination; a man who’s made up his mind and is determined to see it through, no matter the consequences. And Farrell, giving a career-best performance, is all quiet, gentle heartbreak, showing us Padraic realizing that he’s smaller than he thought he was, and that he doesn’t know how to get bigger. Listen to the world of hurt he puts into the line “I am not putting me donkey outside when I’m sad,” when Siobhan chides him for letting Jenny in the house. It’s a funny moment, and yet — like much of this strange, irresistible film — it breaks your heart.
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'THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN'
4 stars (out of 4)
MPAA rating: R (for language throughout, some violent content and brief graphic nudity)
Running time: 1:54
How to watch: Now in theaters
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