Irish island Inisherin, 1 9 2 3. Farmer Padraic is surprised that his best friend Colm suddenly stopped all contact and doesn’t want to talk with him anymore. Colm wants to compose music on his violin alone. When Padraic insists on contact, Colm starts cutting off one of his own fingers each time he speaks with him. Padraic lives with his sister Siobhan, but she leaves the island to accept a far away job. When his beloved donkey Jenny dies from eating Colm’s finger on the ground, the angry Padraic sets Colm’s house on fire. Later, Colm and Padraic have a chat on the shore.
Overrated and overhyped, “The Banshees of Inisherin” are a peculiar depiction of Irish mentality that doesn’t lead to any particular point at the end. The screenplay is disappointingly bland, conventional and overstretched, with routine, underwhelming dialogue. There is no wit or inspiration in the way these people talk. A rare example that proves otherwise is after Colm cut off his own finger and threw it at Padraic’s door, in order to warn the latter not to talk to him anymore and leave him alone: the bewildered Padraic actually goes to Colm’s house later on, and tells him he is crazy: “How many fingers do you have to prove you are not fecking mental? Nine fingers is the epitome of mental!” The story is an allegory on the Irish Civil War (Colm suddenly turns his back to his lifelong friend Padraic, until this escalates at the end), Irish emigration (Siobhan leaves the island because she found a job abroad) and the slow death or Irish mentality and traditions (Padraic isn’t married and has no kids). However, allegories and symbols alone don’t make a movie. A movie also needs a good story, cinematic techniques, inspiration, dialogue... all of which “Banshees” are lacking. Why did Colm suddenly stop talking to Padraic? Because he suddenly felt Padraic is “boring”. But that doesn’t explain why Colm would go to such extreme lengths such as cutting his own fingers just to not talk to him. Something drastic obviously must have happened between them that lead them to this drastic point and that would make Colm cutting off his fingers justified. But the script honestly believes that just being “boring” is sufficient for someone to perform self-mutilation. There simply needs to be a better justification than this in order for it to make sense. Even if the cut fingers are an allegory on Northern Ireland being cut off from the rest of Ireland, this still needs to be translated into a valid reason for why Colm would suddenly stop talking with Padraic under any cost. This way, this thin movie is lacking, and no artistic obfuscation can compensate for that.
Grade:+
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