email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

DINARD 2024

Review: Bring Them Down

by 

- Bad blood and paternalism lead to escalating and absurd violence in Christopher Andrews’ promising debut feature, starring an Irish-speaking Christopher Abbott

Review: Bring Them Down
Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott in Bring Them Down

After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Special Presentations section and screening at a few US festivals, Christopher Andrews’ debut feature, Bring Them Down, has had its European premiere in competition at the Dinard British and Irish Film Festival. It will screen at the BFI London Film Festival later this month.

Also written by Andrews, the film operates in the thriller genre to tell its story of familial conflict, economic strife and patriarchal violence. The stylised opening sequence introduces us to one of the two main protagonists indirectly: in a car speeding through the forest, a middle-aged woman (Susan Lynch) addresses her son Michael, the driver, and delivers some difficult news. We don’t see his face then, but we know that his reaction will have devastating consequences. Cut to years later, when Michael O’Shea (US actor Christopher Abbott, impressively adopting both the Irish accent and language) now lives with his ailing and hot-tempered father Ray (Colm Meaney) and takes care of the family’s shepherding business. Their rapport is difficult, and so is their relationship with their neighbours and fellow farmers, Gary (the great Paul Ready, who stood out in the series The Terror) and his son Jack (Barry Keoghan). Gary is now married to Michael’s former girlfriend Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), who still carries marks of that fateful day when everything went wrong.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)
muestradecinedelanzarote2024

Andrews first lets us share in Michael’s point of view as things start to go south again. The farmer already struggles to keep his cool when he sees that someone has destroyed the gate to his father’s property, and when he finds out that Gary has seemingly stolen two of their rams and tried to sell them at the market, revenge is on his mind. The more or less dormant tension between the families starts to simmer once again, but Andrews hasn’t yet presented his characters with enough depth for their face-offs and the menacing looks they exchange to make much of an impact, and the first half-hour of the movie fails to capture one’s attention.

It is in the film’s second act that Andrews’ ingenious approach reveals itself and starts paying off. The filmmaker shifts to Jack’s perspective and takes us back in time to the beginning of this most recent series of events, revealing crucial details that reshape our thinking: Gary crushed the gate only after Ray stubbornly refused to let them through, and it was Jack’s concerns for his own family, suffering under the weight of financial struggles, that sent him down a vengeful and regrettable path. Suddenly, what seemed like needlessly cold and violent attitudes from all the men involved appear to be the result of an endemic fear of abandonment, a desire to appear strong, and an inability to show remorse. At last, Andrews makes his characters much more accessible and endearing despite their flaws, with Keoghan and Ready in particular bringing much-appreciated sensitivity and subtlety to their performances of fragile and still-in-the-making masculinity, respectively.

This impressive surge of feeling nevertheless arrives a little late, and one wonders if it could have highlighted the at times comical absurdity of the violence these men inflict on each other had it had more room to express itself. The camerawork by Nick Cooke also feels rather accidental at times, when it could have helped better shape this smartly constructed narrative into a shocking Rashomon-like web of perspectives. Bring Them Down however remains a promising debut feature, especially for its playfully constructed script that turns the thriller genre inside-out to place real human feeling at its centre.

Bring Them Down is an Irish-UK-Belgian co-production by Tailored Films, Wild Swim and Frakas Productions. International sales are handled by Charades.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy