Thang god Colin Farrell didn't kill himself on Banshees!
The first half of the film is quite interesting and reveals the fragility of our pre-adolescence, the social pressures, and the dangers of male toxicity that are passed down from generation to generation. Lack of communication is always bad and the film approaches it from different perspectives as well.
The problem is what it does with its narrative shock. It could have done interesting things but it turns into something worse. With an excessive number of close-ups so distracting to the point of thinking that the title is a tribute to the technique, Close hits the same key over and over again to end exactly where we predicted (at the time of the shocking revelation) that it would end. It's manipulative but much worse than that, it does little with that manipulation except begging for our tears.
Even so, it is a film worth seeing, really well acted, with a great performance by the kid Eden Dambrine.
The first half of the film is quite interesting and reveals the fragility of our pre-adolescence, the social pressures, and the dangers of male toxicity that are passed down from generation to generation. Lack of communication is always bad and the film approaches it from different perspectives as well.
The problem is what it does with its narrative shock. It could have done interesting things but it turns into something worse. With an excessive number of close-ups so distracting to the point of thinking that the title is a tribute to the technique, Close hits the same key over and over again to end exactly where we predicted (at the time of the shocking revelation) that it would end. It's manipulative but much worse than that, it does little with that manipulation except begging for our tears.
Even so, it is a film worth seeing, really well acted, with a great performance by the kid Eden Dambrine.