Day 111 - The Killing of a Sacred Deer



Day 111          The Killing of a Sacred Deer [2017]
                          
Screenplay                    Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou
Based on                       ‘Iphegenia at Aulis’ by Euripides
Director                         Yorgos Lanthimos
Cinematography            Thimios Bakatakis
Music                            Nick Payne & Sarah Giles
Leads                            Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Alicia Silverstone, Bill Camp
Production                     Film4, New Sparta Films, HanWay Films, The Irish Film Board, Element Pictures, Limp

IMDb                                  7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes                 79%

After Lanthimos’ last film, The Lobster (which is excellent by the way), I was expecting something weird and wonderful with this. The trailer literally gives nothing away, just like the first half an hour or so of this film. All we know is cardiac surgeon Steven (Farrell) and his wife Anna (Kidman) live a stable life in a beautiful home with their two children. Steven meets with a teenage boy, Martin (Keoghan), every so often and as the movie ticks along Lanthimos slowly unveils their relationship and it all gets rather messy. That’s about as far as I want to explain the plot. Perhaps suitable that it is a modern recreation of the story of Iphigenia - a Greek tragedy it certainly is. Both Steven and Anna are socially odd in their interactions, but this is an already classic style of dialogue that Lanthimos likes to use. It’s incredibly absurd, honest conversation that unsettles the viewer alongside darting glances and awkward body language. Every character cringes and jars you and I found myself squirming in my seat. None more so than Barry Keoghan’s character. He is excellent, with appearances in this, Dunkirk (Day 38) and American Animals (out later this year and already gaining repute on the festival circuit) he is a star in the making. You don’t know whether to laugh at him or punch him in the face. I hated his character, but I always feel that when a movie stirs up hatred within me towards a particular character then the actor must be doing a pretty good job. Farrell continues his good work from The Lobster and Kidman slips into her role as if she had played it a hundred times. Bakatakis works the camera with incredible juxtaposition. One minute you have a beautiful wide shot with the sun glittering through trees, the next you have a moody low tracking shot of Steven walking through dimly lit hospital corridors, and then you have gruesome personal close-ups (make sure you haven’t eaten recently for the opening scene). It keeps you on your toes, as does the jumpy sound track which sent shivers down my spine each time the music kicked in. The timing seems so off-kilter and yet worked. I felt off-balance for the whole film. I didn’t much like the ending, but you can’t win them all. This one is not for everyone.

Acting                              4 / 4
Writing                          3.5 / 4
Cinematography            3.5 / 4
Music                            3.5 / 4
HWF rating               3.5 / 4

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