Martin McDonagh on the “midlife crisis” hidden in “Banshees of Inisherin”

Martin McDonagh admits his new movie The Banshees of Inisherin is an accurate portrayal of what a midlife crisis would look like in 1920s Ireland.

The writer and director’s new movie reunites with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, the same trio who worked on the cult classic In Bruges. The actors play two men on a fictional island off the coast of Ireland, whose lives are unexpectedly changed when one man decides he doesn’t want to be friends with the other anymore.

The Banshees of Inisherin have received widespread praise from critics who covered it on the film festival circuit, and everyone will be able to see the comedy drama for themselves when its released in movie theaters on October 21.

“That’s very good. I definitely haven’t heard that one,” McDonagh told Newsweek when asked if the movie feature a serious midlife crisis. “It’s almost a modern quandary that Brendan Gleeson’s character has.”

When Colm (Gleeson) informs Pádraic (Farrell) that he doesn’t want to be friends anymore, Pádraic is initially confused and attempts to make amends. Pádraic persists but Colm threatens him with an ultimatum, stating that every time he bothers him, Colm will cut off one of his own fingers.

McDonagh thinks Colm, who believes he has around 12 years left to live, is asking himself big questions and making serious decisions based on that.

“It’s almost like a post-COVID quandary in some ways, you know? Are we wasting time? What are we doing with our lives? And you know, if we get out of this thing, are we going to live better lives or live truer lives? And I think that is, you could call it a midlife crisis. Very much. So I think that’s a lot of what’s going on. Obviously, they didn’t wouldn’t even have those words for it back then. But yeah, I think it is [a midlife crisis].”

Gleeson’s character Colm decides to abandon his friendship in an effort to focus on his art and music as a talented violinist. This decision to make sacrifices to suffer for his art is something McDonagh, the creator of In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, can relate to.

“Yes, very much so,” McDonagh laughed. “I do have all those questions of, am I wasting time? Should I do more? Make more films? Should I be sitting on my ass for five years between projects? You’ve got to leave more of a legacy. That is sort of part of the midlife crisis aspect of it too. But yeah, so a lot of [Colm] probably is me, and I definitely haven’t given that answer today, but that is true.”

While McDonagh is a bit of Colm, he also sees himself in the opposing character Pádraic who is a waving flag for niceness and positivity.

Acting alongside Farrell and Gleeson is a talented Irish cast including the likes of Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan. The latter is coming into prominence for his recent casting as the Joker in The Batman movie.

Before working with McDonagh on The Banshees of Inisherin, he tried to will the collaboration into existence by making the filmmaker his background on his phone.

“I’m a big believer in the law of attraction, and I’m very spiritual as well,” Keoghan told Newsweek. “I went as far as then putting McDonagh on the front of my phone. And he emailed me, and I said, ‘Feckin’ hell,’ and so not only that, he said ‘let’s meet and chat about the script.’ Before we met though I thought: I best get him off the front of my phone because he’s gonna sit down and see his face and he’ll think I’m insane.”

Keoghan just turned 30 years old this month, but he was comparatively the youngster on the set of The Banshees of Inisherin. He used his time with the cast to learn as much as he could from his older peers.

“I was learning from my co stars, from Brandon, Colin and Kerry, and just the professionalism that they have. [I learned] just to stay true to what it is that we’re trying to or trying to say. Sometimes I like to go off and ad-lib. It was kind of a challenge for me as an actor to kind of stick to the lines.”

Keoghan was joining an established team that enjoyed so much success with In Bruges 15 years ago. Ever since that project, McDonagh had harbored aspirations to work with the duo again.

“Definitely, it was written for [Colin and Brendan], to get them back together to write to their strengths.” McDonagh continued, “There’s so much affection for In Bruges and to sort of tap into that feeling again, but really it was to just have a ball have a blast with with Colin and Brendan during the shooting of it.

While In Bruges was a love story between two men forming a friendship, The Banshees of Inisherin is the breakup of two men, losing a friendship.

It’s not out of the question that the two films could become part of a trilogy, as the idea of reuniting with the duo again appeals to McDonagh.

“More and more I’m thinking that film should be that. They should be like little repertory companies having fun and doing good art, but just having fun together. So yeah, that was a major, major factor in wanting to work with them again.”

The Banshees of Inisherin will arrive in movie theaters on Friday October 21.