BRING THEM DOWN: 3 STARS. “a mishmash of resentment, gripes and tension.”
SYNOPSIS: In” Bring Them Down,” a violent new drama starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott and now playing in theatres, a bloody feud with a rival family forces a sheep farmer to confront a traumatic incident from his past.
CAST: Barry Keoghan, Christopher Abbott, Nora-Jane Noone, Paul Ready, Aaron Heffernan, Conor McNeill, Susan Lynch, and Colm Meaney. Directed by Christopher Andrews.
REVIEW: Grim and gritty, “Bring Them Down” is a mishmash of resentment, gripes and tensions that makes “The Banshees of Inisherin” seem positively lighthearted by comparison.
The story of shattered relationships and open wounds, set in remote Ireland, begins with a car accident that leaves sheep farmer and driver Michael’s (Christopher Abbott) mother dead, and his soon-to-be-ex Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone) scarred for life.
Cut to years later.
Caroline is now married to rival sheep farmer Gary (Paul Ready) and is mother to Jack (Barry Keoghan). When Jack steals two prize rams from the farm Michael runs with his cruel father Ray (Colm Meaney), all hell breaks loose. The feud between the farmers turns violent, endangering not only their lives, but also their way of life.
The dreary rural Irish setting enhances the story’s inherent bleakness. Not that the subject matter needed much help.
The downbeat story offers little in the way of reprieve from its dour point of view, but director Christopher Andrews takes pains to delve into the complexity of the personalities involved. Using a nonlinear timeline Andrews shifts perspective to reveal the character’s backstories, and the toxicity, insecurity and hopes that push Michael and Jack to the edge.
It is a testament to Abbott and Keoghan’s fine performances that the characters pop as much as they do. In Abbott’s hands the deeply troubled Michael still manages some sensitivity. Keoghan’s Jack is quiet, but capable of extreme behavior. In the end, however, it is the weight of the pair’s commonalities, a mix of familial expectation and trauma, not their actions that threaten to crush both.
“Bring Them Down” is a brutal movie, both in its depiction of animal cruelty and its unneighborly blood feud, that paints an unrelentingly intense portrait of desperation. It’s gripping right up to, but not including its vague, final moments. The conclusion blunts the power of what came before, leaving behind only uncertainty tinged by sadness.
Comments are closed.
