Brendan Gleeson is an accomplished fiddle player and performs his own tunes as the angry Colm. Colin Farrell is wonderful, too, as the befuddled Pádraic who is devoted to his menagerie of animals, especially his donkey Jenny. Strong support comes from Kerry Condon as Pádraic's sister Siobhan and Barry Keoghan as Dominic, a young man from the village.
Director/writer Martin McDonagh, all four leading actors, and most of the rest of the cast are Irish-born. McDonagh instructed composer Carter Burwell that there should be no Irish traditional music in the score. That was left to Gleeson and his band in some of the pub scenes. Burwell's thoughtful 33 minute score can be streamed on Apple Music and probably elsewhere. Ben Davis is behind the camera for the lovely photography, all shot in Ireland.
Because Gleeson and Farrell starred as friends and colleagues in In Bruges (2008) with McDonagh directing, we were under the impression this would be a sequel. It is certainly not.
I found these tidbits of trivia fascinating, including that Farrell's character's name Pádraic Súilleabháin would be Patrick Sullivan in English--the longer name is in Gaelic.
Gleeson was last blogged for The Tragedy of Macbeth, Farrell for After Yang, Keoghan for American Animals, McDonagh and Davis for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Burwell (who scored Three Billboards) for Catherine Called Birdy.
After I too-briefly mentioned Condon for The Last Station, she was in Three Billboards and 18 episodes of Better Call Saul, among many credits.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are shrieking happily with Jack and me, averaging 97%, while its audiences, at 76, are more reserved.
We watched it with our subscription to HBO Max on December 23.
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