Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in The Banshees of Inisherin. Photo: Jonathan Hession / Searchlight Pictures

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
Directed by Martin McDonagh
Certificate: 15
☆☆☆☆

WHAT to make of Martin McDonagh’s latest film, which reunites Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson with the director, who used them to such great effect in In Bruges.

For a black comedy, it is striking and beautiful.

Every shot feels like a carefully set up still life, something a painter would whip out an easel and canvas and just have to capture. His use of colour is striking – a run-down and manky hovel is markedly grey, but the primary-coloured washing line suggests the people inside are not as drab as their home suggested.

We are transported to a small island off the coast of Ireland. It’s the 1920s and the gunpowder smoke and the sounds of explosions drift across the water.

We meet smallholder and dairy farmer Pádraic (Farrell) as he undertakes a daily post-work journey to knock for his best mate Colm (Gleeson) as they head off for a pint.

But something is wrong: Colm won’t answer his front door, and when Pádraic eventually does get to speak with his friend, he is told in no uncertain terms their relationship is over and Colm will not be talking to Pádraic anymore.

Their relationship and its breakdown is at the heart if this bumpy, charmingly inexplicable film.

“I just don’t like you,” Colm announces to Pádraic’s perplexed face. Now Pádriac wants to find out why and fix things – but his attempts to do so result in a macabre demonstration by Colm to show how strong his feelings of antipathy run.

The island of Inisherin is both a lovely backdrop but also offers something troubling. Farmers sip Guinness and listen to the fiddle, the parish priest is out of Father Ted, while the iron-handed town copper is the classic jumped-up jobsworth thug.

There is the village idot Dominic (Barry Keoghan) who offers unwanted advice and distractions to Pádraic as he deals with his rejection, and then there is Pádraic’s sister, apparently the only intelligent life form on the island.

And it is this that makes the film feel like there is something lurking beneath the surface that is wonky. It is an Ireland sailing at times worryingly close to stupid stereotypes.

However, Gleeson and Farrell are magnificently watchable and McDonagh’s sure eye makes this a welcome piece of escapism set in a beautiful part of the world.