If the eyes are the window to the soul, the eyebrows are the curtains which really tie the room together. As someone once teased at school for having unruly eyebrows – to the extent I went through an unfortunate overplucking phase as a teenager and now the ends of them trail off, like a sad ellipsis at the end of a sentence – I’ve always been a fan of an actor with distinctive brows, and nobody does it better than Colin Farrell.
His distinctive brows have been a signature for two decades, and his soulful performance as perpetual sadsack Pádraic Súilleabháin in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin represents possibly the greatest achievement in Eyebrow Acting ever committed to the big screen. Farrell’s eyebrows are a barometer for Pádraic’s mood – an expressive outlet more powerful than an entire library of emojis. We know exactly what Pádraic’s thinking before he’s told us thanks to Farrell’s hypnotic facial expresses, ranging from confused to heartbroken to angry to delighted, and rapid-cycling through these emotions in a manner that adds a charming sparkle to McDonagh’s already wry script. When Farrell picked up the Volpi Cup for Best Actor in Venice, they should have awarded a second trophy to him, in recognition of what he manages to pull off in the top portion of his face – a veritable ballet of eyebrow theatrics, the likes of which we rarely see in film or television.
Despite being extremely hot, Farrell has always had a real talent for playing losers. This became apparent in his first collaboration with Martin McDonagh, In Bruges, where he played incompetent, depressed hitman Ray, who is banished to Belgium with his partner Ken (Brendan Gleeson) after a job goes extremely wrong. Ray is a pathetic creature, who spends most of his time in Bruges complaining about being in Bruges.
But Farrell’s eyebrow acting in The Banshees of Inisherin makes perfect sense for his character. Pádraic Súilleabháin is an open book – his only interests in life are tending to his animals, lightly bickering with his beloved sister, and going down the pub for a pint and a chat with his best mate Colm. When Colm abruptly ends their friendship with a rather callous “I just don’t like ya no more”, Pádraic’s heart shatters into a million pieces, like the moment in The Simpsons where Lisa tells Ralph Wiggum she doesn’t like him. Pádraic is an expressive, candid character, and this openness translates into his facial expressions. There’s no subtext with Pádraic – he wears his heart on his sleeve and every emotion he has on his face. Farrell’s command of eyebrow acting is crucial to this expressiveness, utilising a baffled furrow or an angry scowl to create a sense that Pádraic, while not considered an intellectual by Colm, is most definitely sensitive to the world around him, and feels things deeply, even if he’s not much for pouring his heart out or pontificating on art.
This contrasts wonderfully from Brendan Gleeson’s buttoned-up, gruff performance as Colm, who barely has a kind word for Pádraic and would much rather be left to play his fiddle and dance with his dog. Colm’s reticence to explain himself to Pádraic is reflected in Gleeson’s stony face, and the breakdown in communication between the two men eloquently says a lot about the way men often interact with one another. The differences between Pádraic and Colm may seem trivial – indeed Pádraic is completely baffled that Colm can decide to end a friendship based on perceived lack of intellectual stimulation – but the gulf between them widens as Colm keeps trying to avoid the subject, and they both fail to express themselves in their words. In fact, Colm decides it’s preferable to start chopping his fingers off in hopes Pádraic will get the message.
Curiously, Farrell doesn’t think The Banshees of Insherin is even his finest brow work. “I could show you films where I've done more eyebrow acting,” he said in an interview with Digital Spy. “They just didn't find the audience that this one has already.” You heard the man – there’s never been a better time to get into the Farrell filmography, brows and all.
Banshees of Inisherin is out now
