The Banshees of Inisherin

I think I've got to the bottom of one of the reasons as to why I dislike McDonagh's films so much. It comes down to detachment. Considering what should amount to a really weighty plot, that really bears down on the characters, we instead get a treatment that is flat, even sterile. We witness two hours of Farrell and Gleeson mutedly remonstrating with the ending of the film marking a state of affairs that is actually in many ways no different from its beginning. Banshees is detached both in treatment and in essence. The music is a particular culprit here; we get gently plinking, almost disinterested woodwinds and vibraphones which never capture the sense that anything that happens here is something that actually matters. Later on in the film, we come across semi-operatic numbers which seem to almost lampoon any emotional heft we're meant to share in as the viewer. The saddest moment conveyed comes when Farrell's character has to bury his deceased donkey, and it's shown dispassionately! The scene is even played for laughs with the revelation that it choked to death on one of the fingers of Gleeson's character. Of course, there could be room for comedy with a scene like this, but McDonagh's treatment seems almost more comedic than dramatic here; and an extremely humourless comedy at that. Perhaps someone might reply that the essence of Irish emotion is something akin to the stiff upper lip, and the scene accurately captures the emotions of the main characters far more than an "overly-sentimental, Hollywoodised" approach would do. Others might say that this really is how desensitised young men in Catholic Ireland would have shown emotion at the time. I respectfully disagree. I get the sense that McDonagh's creations are so infused with nihilism that it's hard to emotionally connect with any of the characters or their feelings. On the face of it, we are meant to submit to rhetoric: why are these two men so divided? Isn't this battle so pointless? How stubborn men can be! Yet Gleeson's switch to acrimony and then on to masochism is so jarring that it cries out for a real justification. I've read other reviews of the film that argue that McDonagh does leave the door open for hope and meaning in this film: I would reply with the word, where?. Farrell himself has concluded that the film itself is about the loss of joy. The direction of the film seems to mirror the decision of its characters to jettison God and any attempt to cling to a higher virtue. What we get is two men on a rock falling out and destroying themselves and each other without reason, and the film itself doesn't even care!-what a lost opportunity, and an unconsumed banquet. There are redeeming features. I love the historic setting, and some of the cinematography is really beautiful. It's also cool that we get a budget like this devoted to a film about a couple of blokes in 1920s rural western Ireland. It's just a shame that the opportunity for something really meaningful gets passed up in the process.