A not-so-esoteric-as-it-seems-at-first, beautifully made and performed, story of growing apart.

“I’m at that place right now,” Jamie Lee Curtis says to Colin Farrell in their Actors-on-Actors episode for Variety, “that time is much shorter that I have left on Earth… ultimately, you’re gonna have to say to some people, ‘I don’t want to be your friend anymore’.” The Banshees of Inisherin does at first seem like a quirky, if spectacularly painterly, story told in an almost mythical setting – until it becomes apparent that it is, as Curtis tells Farrell, so deep.

Having been the Colm (Brendan Gleeson) in certain situations, I could indeed relate to the question: how do you break up with a friend? Having been the Siobhán (the wonderful Kerry Condon) in other situations, when the tectonic plates of your mutuals shift seismically apart, how long can you last, can you stretch, until you can no longer deny that you, too, need to make some kind of change?

However, telling its story as it does from his perspective, The Banshees of Inisherin helped me to see that, at certain times in my life, I’ve also been the Pádaric (Colin Farrell): the friend broken up with, too dim or stubborn to understand or accept what was happening, and in my obliviousness witnessing and/or causing subsequent shocking brutality (albeit less physical than emotional). Having been the Pádaric, i can now say that there would have been no “easy” way for a former friend to tell or show me that they simply didn’t want me in their life anymore. I can only hope, as the adorable and tragic Dominic (Barry Keoghan) points out, I wasn’t ultimately so mean.

Further Viewing

Who doesn’t want to spend more time with writer/director Martin McDonagh and his eloquently reflective leading men? (via Film4)

Thomas Flight asks 5 Questions About The Banshees of Inisherin:

Here’s a whole behind-the-scenes featurette (via Searchlight Pictures):

And here’s that chat with Jamie Lee Curtis and Colin Farrell: