Garnering nine Academy Award nominations, the Irish comedy-tragedy The Banshees of Inisherin has become one of 2022’s must-see movies.  I missed it the first time around but finally saw it last night.  It is not what I expected.

Martin McDonagh’s film boasts a startlingly simple premise: one man, Padraic (Colin Farrell), doesn’t know how to react when his oldest (and older) friend, Colm (Brendan Gleeson) decides he no longer values Padraic’s friendship and wants to be left alone.  Their relationship devolves into awkward avoidances and painful remonstrances before bottoming out with physical violence — which involves more than those two men.  And while there are moments of comedy (and wonderfully expressive animals), this tale is most definitely a tragedy.

I didn’t expect the tragedy.  As basic as its premise seems to be, McDonagh’s film explores every nuance and social ramification that a feud on a small (fictional) Irish island in 1923 could entail.  Tiny details make a huge impact on one or more characters, as well as the audience.  Clergy and police become involved, but perhaps not as one would think.  Padraic’s sister Siobhan (Kerry Conlan) becomes the most empathetic of characters, and the only one with the good sense to escape.  Other people on the island know all about the ongoing trouble but stay out of it, even when interfering might be the proper thing to do.  And those social conundrums are the crux of McDonagh’s drama.

With an exquisite script and evocative location filming, McDonagh creates a small, isolated universe in which one man’s change of personality sets trouble — or Irish fate — into inevitable motion.  In this world there is no obvious right or wrong; everyone has their own rationale for their actions.  Where the story concludes is a place of tragedy which I felt should have been avoided had the characters acted rationally.  But humans being human, McDonagh is arguing, means that people will do what they will do, even when it is against their best interests.  It’s a hard lesson, evocatively told but difficult to accept.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  10 February 2023.