4.0 out of 5 star rating<\/span> <\/span> <\/div> <\/div> 14 years after his crime drama debut In Bruges, writer\/director Martin McDonagh has reunited with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, only this time it\u2019s different. Once again his work follows a pair of Irishmen, and the script is so profane it\u2019s almost poetic, but instead of hitmen\u2019s murderous exploits it\u2019s about a squabble between friends in the 1920s \u2014 and the result is arguably McDonagh\u2019s most mature film yet.<\/p>\n
On the fictional Aran island of Inisherin in 1923, P\u00e1draic (Colin Farrell) is a cow farmer who meets his friend Colm (Brendan Gleeson) every day at 2pm to drink Guinness and while away time in the local pub. They make an odd pair, with P\u00e1draic perhaps not the sharpest tool in the box and Colm a thoughtful and brooding chap with a love of music \u2013 but by all accounts they are close. That is until, one day, Colm gives his pal the cold shoulder and tells him that their friendship is over. \u201cI just don\u2019t like you no more,\u201d he tells him callously.<\/p>\n
When P\u00e1draic doesn\u2019t get the message, however, Colm ups the ante and pledges to lop off one of his own fingers every time P\u00e1draic talks to him from now on. Forget raising your voice, nothing says you\u2019re serious quite like self-mutilation, it seems.<\/p>
As gossip is a form of currency on Inisherin, the feud is soon the talk of the pub, and the period setting allows McDonagh to do the kind of foul-mouthed linguistic grandstanding you would expect from the writer of the Oscar-winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. However, across Galway Bay the Civil War is raging \u2014 and this backdrop is key to how The Banshees of Inisherin stealthily unfurls into an allegorical film that\u2019s much more than a black comedy about a break-up between friends.<\/p>\n
From wallowing by the fire with his donkey to drunkenly confronting Colm, Farrell is the perfect self-pitying hangdog, as confusion and hurt find a perfect home on his expressive and bushy brows. In a career littered with characters asking Farrell to go big \u2014 with recent examples in The North Water and The Batman \u2014 P\u00e1draic is arguably one of his greatest roles, as the 46-year-old dials it down for a sad-eyed performance of pathos and depth.<\/p>\n
As for Gleeson, he too is treading new ground. In Bruges saw him play a cynical hitman but on Inisherin, Gleeson takes world-weariness to new heights. With Colm suffering from such melancholy that his priest asks him \u201cHow\u2019s the despair?\u201d during confession, Gleeson is a captivating and commanding screen presence.<\/p>\n