|
www.kevacho.com
©2002-2024
Kevin Michael Vance
Writer - Portland, Oregon
|
|
|
Go Back To Reviews
Title: THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
Director: Martin McDonagh
Year: 2022
Reviewed: June 21, 2023
| Rating: |
|
 | |
| |
 | |
| |
Birthday Cake-Second Highest Rating |
[Rating Definitions]
|
|
|
I most definitely feel I've been down this particular road with Mr. McDonagh before; most especially with his 2017 film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. But here we are, yet again... Banshees, albeit his much lauded fourth feature-length film, is not very good. Let me explain why.
First, there's the fact (whether or not this is Mr. McDonagh's doing or not remains to be seen) that every last bit of comedy was shown to me in the trailer. Every laugh I would have loved to have taken in the theatre I had already uttered in front of my computer. Leaving the comedy both vapid and hollow.
Secondly, the relationship between Mr. Gleeson and Mr. Farrell's characters was not developed in the least. We are simply thrown into the situation and asked to believe that Padraic and Colm have been "life-long" friends. The screenplay could have used a few flashbacks. I didn't care for their relationship because it was never shown to me. In fact, halfway through the film I started to ask myself... well, why were they "life-long" friends in the first place? So, the crux of the film, the friendship between the two main characters, is vacuous in the extreme. Therefore, when Colm starts mutilating himself, with about as much concern as a butcher slicing up a side of beef, I could not have cared less.
Thirdly, and supposedly, there's an underlying theme that the relationship is mirroring the Irish civil war. Great. Fine. But for the fact that the relationship is vacuous and underdeveloped which makes me not care for it or the civil war.
There's some beautiful scenery in this film, but that's about it. And both Farrell and Gleeson are brilliant, as always. But this movie, heavily praised by both critics and fans, I found to be utterly hollow and formless, an idea that never reaches its peak, more style than any real substance, a relationship with no meat or muscle or even bone, from which it might find some much-needed foundation. In Bruges, Mr. McDonagh's 2008 movie, I argue is perfect. You care about the characters in the film. Hell! You even care about the mobster with anger issues and a moral code so strict he would rather commit suicide than go on living if he broke it.
Mr. McDonagh's last three films, although critic darlings, are miles away from the simple perfection of In Bruges; more pretentious, more boring, and less about character and story and substance.
I give The Banshees of Inisherin a BIRTHDAY CAKE review.
|
|
