Colin Farrell gives one of the best performances of his career in this heartbreakingly funny and tragically touching new film by Martin McDonagh.
Farrell plays Padraic, a milk farmer who lives on a remote island off the coast of Ireland in 1923. You can occasionally hear shells going off on the mainland from fighting skirmishes during their Civil War. But life is fairly simple on the island. Padraic lives with his book-smart sister Siobhan (luminous Kerry Condon) and his pet donkey in a small cottage. His one constant is stopping by to pick up his best friend Colm (Brendan Gleeson) and going to the local pub for a few drinks.
But one day Colm decides he doesn’t want to be friends with Padraic anymore. And it destroys Padraic. He can’t understand why. Is it something he did or said? No, Colm says. He just finds his company boring, and would prefer to spend his time composing songs for his fiddle.
It’s not as if this occurs in a teeming city. This island is miniscule and the only other person Padraic can talk to about this besides his sister is dim-witted Dominic (scene-stealing Barry Keoghan), who lives with his brutish cop father, who beats him constantly. So Padraic keeps desperately trying to mend this impasse with his oldest friend until the exasperated Colm threatens to start cutting off a finger at a time every time Padraic bothers him.
What’s so beautiful about Farrell and Gleeson’s chemistry (much like they had in McDonagh’s brilliant In Bruges) is that it elevates this simple drama of someone being “unfriended” into an almost apocalyptic drama. Cinematographer Ben Davis (who has worked with the director in the past) beautifully captures the windswept, rocky beauty and desolation of this island. And McDonagh’s screenplay bristles with sardonic bursts of dark humor and also heart-rending pathos. But Farrell anchors the film with his great, soulful performance.