The movie follows two lifelong pals on a remote Irish isle. At an impasse, one abruptly ends the friendship, resulting in alarming consequences for both.
This movie contains 54 potentially triggering events.
While there is some initial comic element to Padraic’s complete inability to honor Colm’s demands to never speak to him again, Padraic, yes, does obsessively stalk Colm, no mistake. Tho with no *direct* intent to harm Colm, Colm has warned/threatened Padraic more than once with his own significant self-harm if Padraic doesn’t comply however, so Padraic’s relentless pursuit of Colm’s attention is nonetheless brutally harmful as Colm makes good on those threats - twice.
While no longer a child in age, Dominic is dependent on his abusive father, in part because his father’s long term abuse starting in childhood has clearly caused severe neurological damage. While we don’t see the physical abuse happen (we do witness emotional abuse), the injuries Dominic sustains after a beating, and Dominic’s description of it are deeply disturbing.
Around 1 hour 27 mins in you see a dead donkey. At 1 hour 28 mins a man pulls a severed finger from the dead donkeys mouth. At 1 hour 29 mins you see a man petting the dead donkey. At 1 hour 29 mins 40 seconds you see the man burying the donkey. To avoid seeing the dead donkeys skip from 1 hour 27 mins to 1 hour 30 minutes and 23 seconds.
Kind of difficult to believe that the little donkey would actually choke on a finger, but it does and it’s gruelingly heartbreaking. Good storytelling, but damn. Next time I see an R-rated Irish film I’m doing more research. I actually would have left after Colm cuts his first finger off, but there were two ladies with mobility issues (who I already had to move so I could get seated) between me and freedom in a tight art house cinema. I’ll tell you tho, if Padraich had laid a pinky on that dog, I woulda climbed over them. Visually stunning, exquisite depiction of the suffocating isolation of island life, and like I said excellent if effed up storytelling. Not for sensitive animal lovers or for those with debilitating empathy.
Unclear if Dominic is a minor or not - the actor is about 30 but he could pass for much younger. We learn he was sexually abused as a child but there aren't flashbacks or anything.
No horror-style jumpscares, but as said there are a few impacts that made me jump. There's one when Pádraic leaves the general store after speaking to the policeman, and another near the end when he looks at himself in the mirror.
We see a dead donkey with vomit around its mouth. It’s not particularly upsetting (I’m pretty sure it’s physically impossible for donkeys to vomit anyway)
Only towards himself. Colm isn’t explicitly said to be mentally I’ll but there’s definitely something wrong with him, and he cuts off his own fingers out of spite
there are a couple of comments about “impure thoughts about another man” when colm and the priest are in confession, but that’s the only time anything related to non-heterosexuality is ever mentioned
Some brief homophobia. The priest accuses Colm of having “impure thoughts about men” and Colm is outraged. He accuses the priest of the same and the priest says something along the lines of “how dare you suggest such a thing about a man of the cloth”
A young man hits on an older woman (the actors are 30 and 39 respectively, but the man's character is implied to be younger), but she rejects him. There's also mentions of pedophilia in the past.
Dominic speaks about women in objectifying terms, speaks to them with inappropriate candor, and has extreme difficulty responding to cues or even direct requests to desist
dominic is implied to be sexually abused by his father, which leads him to ask pádraic if he’s ever seen his sister naked (he hasn’t). pádraic is uncomfortable with this question, and dominic doesn’t understand why seeing your family members naked would be abnormal, because he sees his dad naked all the time.