I watched a tragedy the other day. It got under my skin. Its characters wouldn’t let me be. But I was also a bit sorry I’d seen it. A friend used a perfect word for it: grim.
The film, The Banshees of Inisherin, is being called a black comedy, and some strange critics are calling it hilarious.
Hilarious?????
I love black comedies. I will howl at Shaun of the Dead and Serial Mom and Dr. Strangelove. But what Martin McDonagh’s new film makes me want to do is weep.
Have we forgotten Yorick in Hamlet? Or the dying Mercutio’s quip in Romeo and Juliet, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man”? Moments of humor do not make a tragedy a comedy. They highlight and accentuate the tragedy, make us feel for those who’ve suffered and make our sense of their losses heavier, more acute.
If you want to tell a story about a friend dying in the hospital, you don’t ONLY show that friend in the hospital. You show her lively and funny and nimble—help us see the distance between her then and now. Otherwise, all we audience members feel is a kind of generic sadness. We don’t think of your friend as an individual. We don’t understand the extent of the loss of this one amazing human being.
The Banshees of Inisherin is—on the surface–about the demise of a friendship for trivial reasons. But what it shows is how little it takes for one simple, everyday man’s life to spiral, for his days to go from easygoing to heartbreaking. And how that change brings out the worst in him. (The story is also a rather obvious metaphor about pointless warfare.)
I find Martin McDonagh’s work fascinating. I agree that many of his films are black comedies. But not this film. It’s not ridiculous and theatrical or over the top in the way Seven Psychopaths or In Bruges or even Three Billboards and other black comedies are. The story is too simple, and the pain of Padraic’s (Colin Farrell’s) now broken life is far too minutely and intimately told for the humor to do anything but make us feel for his losses. (And yes, his friend’s actions are over the top, but so are Romeo’s.)
If you want to see just how talented Farrell is, watch the movie. If you’re in the mood for a sad tale about the destructiveness of poor decisions, watch.
But don’t view this film on one of your vacation days, like I did. And stop listening to those critics who think a few jokes make something a comedy.
If you want to weep afterward, it’s not a comedy.
Yes, not a comedy by any stretch of the imagination. Devastating and touching, but I didn’t laugh once. Rather, my heart broke for Colin Farrell’s character. And if he isn’t up for an Academy Award for this performance, I may have to stop watching the Oscars.
He’s an amazing actor. Such a subtle and devastating performance.
A comedy? In the grand old tradition of that knee-slapper “Waiting for Godot.” I thought it more a depiction of a descent into madness. I couldn’t agree with you more, except the characters did not stick with me. I don’t want to be friends with that movie anymore.
I didn’t laugh once during the movie, but I did at this response. Knee-slapper Godot. Love it. And I have to say only two of the characters stuck with me. And the donkey.
I agree, not anything at all like a comedy. A funny scene doesn’t make a movie a comedy. The overall tone of a movie makes it a comedy, and this isn’t it I just checked, again, and the Golden Globes have nominated it as Best Comedy, and Farrell Best Actor in a comedy. Absurd.
I’ve mentioned this movie to a few people with sort of disclaimer that it’s very dark, so don’t see it if they aren’t up for that.
Wow. That makes no sense. Exactly. The tone is what matters most. At least you warned your friends!
This was excellent, Leah. You’ve made me want to see this movie even more than I already did — but now I feel prepared.
Thanks! It’s an interesting movie. But yes, be prepared for it to be quite sad!
Grim is precisely the word I used to describe it. HOW it is classed as a comedy is beyond me. But, we apparently are in the minority?
I get that movies are artificially categorized for the Golden Globes (so that more of the best stuff gets awarded). I don’t agree with it, but I get it. But those reviewers? That makes NO SENSE. We may be in the minority, but we are right!
Your review was spot on. And I am sorry I watched this on my holiday.
LOL. EXACTLY! Not holiday viewing at all.
Yeah, this was a grim “comedy”. I get that it’s a metaphor for the 1923 Irish civil war, but it wasn’t very clever. I am sorry I watched it.
I understand that. I decided in the end I was glad I saw it, but not the day I did! And you’re right. Not a subtle metaphor at all.
It’s no more a metaphor for the 1923 Irish Civil War than it is a comedy.
It’s about disrespect, rage and deep irrational forces. The Civil War is taking place in the background, but no one on the Island really cares or feels involved. In no way do either of the characters represent any factions in the war. The only thing the war and the characters have in common is violent emotion.
The thing takes place on the edge of the sea. The sea represents the unconscious and the land the conscious–this is why Colm lives right on the shore and Padraic lives up the hill. Padraic is surrounded by animals with whom he shares tender creature feeling. Colm is surrounded by masks showing mythical creatures in raging, demonic and ghostly aspects. There is a figure of a man hanging, like a suicide, from the rafters in Colms cottage.
Padraic affection for colm has the quality of a stalker, he’s not a nice guy at all. Colm is struggling and seemingly succeeding with his music and can’t cope with Padraic’s forceful disregard for his wishes. Colm’s intensity when he promises to cut off his fingers is matched by Padraic’s declaration that burningn Colm’s house is not the end of it because Colm survived.
Nothing to do with the war, not a comedy.
I think it makes us uncomfortable because it’s like people we know.
The character I felt most affinity for was Padraic’s sister. She knew when it was time to get the hell out. She understood the wisdom in the old woman’s warning by the dark waters of the lake–a symbolic intrusion of unconscious forces in the seemingly rational, open, hard land.
Such a thoughtful analysis. I think you’ve captured the characters so well. I agree with you that the sister is the most relatable. But I think I feel more sympathy for Farrell’s character than you do. I agree that he can be a pest. But I also think such an abrupt dismissal of a long friendship is cold, and that he truly doesn’t get it. It’s hard to watch such a simple guy, watching his whole world falling apart for reasons he doesn’t understand.