TL;DR: A bitterly sad film infused with whimsical humour. 4*

Black comedies are possibly the hardest films to first get right, and then market – that’s why they are few and far between. In the last twenty years I’ve seen two superb films of this genre: the Argentine portmanteau film Wild Tales, and the Anglo-Irish In Bruges.

Despite generally great reviews and being one of the best constructed (and funniest) comedies I’ve ever seen, In Bruges did very moderate box office. I think this is where marketing is a problem. “The hilariously funny story of a hitman who shoots dead an innocent small child and is ordered to lay low in Belgium till the heat dies down.” is a synopsis to have the best marketing executive running for the hills and joining a monastery.

Fifteen years on, the team behind In Bruges, director Martin McDonagh and stars Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, reunite with another dark film, The Banshees of Inisherin. Set on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, the bitter Irish Civil War a distant backdrop, it tells of two drinking buddies, Pádraic Súillebaháin and the older Colm Doherty (Farrell and Gleeson), in the small isolated community where everyone knows each other’s business. When the fiddle player Colm advises Pádraic that he wants nothing more to do with him – he’d rather spend his remaining days creating music, not talking alcohol-induced inanities – the younger friend cannot accept the rejection and tragedies resultantly occur.

Both lead actors are excellent, playing off each other brilliantly as they did fifteen years ago. A strong supporting cast is near flawless, and Kerry Condon as Pádraic’s astute sister Siobhán deserves a mention in dispatches.
But it’s a haunting and heartbreaking performance from Barry Keoghan as the mentally slow Dominic Kearney which nearly steals the show. Sir John Mills won an Oscar for playing an Irish village idiot in David Lean’s Ryan’s Daughter and it would be fitting if this young actor gets the same accolade.

The screenplay from Martin McDonagh is purposefully bleak, containing whimsical rather than belly laugh humour albeit with a few exceptions – the first confessional scene being prominent amongst them. Cinematography from Ben Davis surely his best work to date.

Did the film have a message? I think so. Pádraic’s observation toward the end that he believes it may be a good thing there are some things that cannot be moved on from, and the film’s era setting, possibly hold the key to its inherent tragedy.