Movie of the Week: The Killing of a Sacred Deer
A slight disappointment living in the shadow of Yorgos Lanthimos’s previous brilliance.
Similarly to his first English language film (The Lobster), Greek writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos set out to make audiences uncomfortable and, at times, confused with his latest work, The Killing of a Sacred Deer. The film spans the gamut of emotional evocations; at some points it feels like the darkest comedy of all time, at others it feels like a supernatural horror flick. It is, of course, neither of those things alone, because Lanthimos has made a name for himself with two films now that blur traditional genre lines. Sacred Deer is a comedy. It is also a horror. It is also a psychological thriller. It is also many other things. It is also none of them.
The premise of Sacred Deer is simple enough. Dr. Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) is a prominent surgeon, his wife Anna (Nicole Kidman) an ophthalmologist, and they lead a seemingly normal upper-class life. Except for this odd young man who Steven appears to have taken under his wing– Martin (Barry Keoghan). Martin seems like a weird kid; he frequently visits Dr. Murphy at his hospital of employment, and really seems to care deeply about spending time with the surgeon who is three times his age. At one point, Martin visits the Murphys’ home, bringing gifts for Anna and their two children. Later, Martin invites Steven to his and his mother’s home in order for his mother to attempt to seduce Dr. Murphy. These do not seem to be the actions of a well-adjusted person, even for a teenager.
We come to find out that there is a reason why Martin has such a fascination with Steven and his family. According to Martin, Dr. Murphy caused the death of his father while operating on him, so now Martin is exacting his revenge in the only way that he can discern as just: Steven must kill a member of his family or else watch each of them lose the use of their legs, fall ill, and die a slow, painful death, one by one. Soon enough, we see that Martin is not bluffing; first the Murphys’ son Bob is struck with paralysis, soon afterwards their older daughter Kim is as well. It becomes clear to Steven that, whether he is guilty of what Martin accuses him of or not, he must make a horrible choice. Hijinks ensue.
This film is similar in many ways to Lanthimos’s 2015 picture, The Lobster. The Lobster was a more openly comedic film than its successor, although equally as strange and grim. The film takes a satirical look at a vaguely dystopian near-future where single people are sent away to resorts where they have 45 days to match up with another single person. If they fail to do so in the time allotted, they are taken away and turned into an animal. Sacred Deer is certainly much darker than The Lobster; however, they both share Lanthimos’s signature quasi-robotic dialogue delivery and bleak outlook on life.
Where Sacred Deer does not live up to its predecessor is in the pairing of its subject matter and this distinct style of storytelling. Having the characters talk like robots and do outlandishly weird things makes some sense when they are in a highly satirical film about conventional wisdom regarding mating. The same dynamic does not work as well in a dark tale of revenge, as Sacred Deer is. Essentially, Lanthimos’s writing and directing style worked well as a one-off, but as a consistent style of filmmaking it can prove to be a little repetitive and unnecessary.
Even still, the film is a strong showing on most scales. Just because The Lobster is better does not mean that there aren’t brilliant dynamics at play in Sacred Deer. Watching Colin Farrell’s Steven Murphy struggle with the impossible decision at hand, and going to great lengths to have the decision be made for him, is one of the strong points of the film. Even better than that are the performances of Nicole Kidman, Raffey Cassidy, and Sunny Suljic as Steven’s wife, daughter, and son, respectively. Once they realize the decision that Steven must make, they try desperately to save themselves and provide Steven with reasons to kill one of the other two members of the family. The strength of this movie comes in the unraveling family dynamic of the Murphys in the face of this inevitable choice that Steven must make.
Ultimately, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a good follow-up to Lanthimos’s initial English-language film. But, as opposed to The Lobster, Lanthimos seems to blur genres too much in Sacred Deer, to the point of neutralization. Rather than have a strong psychological drama with aspects of horror and comedy mixed in, Lanthimos seemed to split the difference too much, and the result is a movie that is not as strong as it could have been. While the film is certainly not bad, and is in fact quite good, it still doesn’t completely live up to expectations. At the end of the day, what you come to believe about the merit of this movie comes down to what grading scale you place it on.
Should you see it?
“I’m looking for a traditional, comfortable movie.”– This is most likely not the one for you.
“I’m president of the Weird Colin Farrell Fan Club.”– Boy is this the right movie for you. Colin Farrell has done a lot of good stuff– I personally think he peaked with In Bruges– but in his recent pairing with Lanthimos (this is the second consecutive movie they’ve done together), he has really embraced the weird. Is that good? Who’s to say. Either way, you can’t say that it’s not fascinating to watch.
“Is the friend of Mark Rylance’s kid in Dunkirk who hits his head and dies in this movie?”– Why, what an oddly specific question! Yes! He is! And he’s super creepy and unsettling! That kid has a name, by the way, and it’s Barry Keoghan, and I don’t know how to pronounce it but that’s okay because he’s an up and coming good young actor. Good for him.
“I want to be introduced to Yorgos Lanthimos as a filmmaker.”– I think that they’re both good, but The Lobster would be my recommendation to watch first. It may just be because I saw that one first. It could very well be that whichever one of these two films a person sees first is going to be the one that they prefer. Or maybe The Lobster really is just better. Or maybe Sacred Deer is actually better and I’m just a dummy who didn’t get it. Maybe they’re both trash. All of those things are possible. These are all just people’s opinions. We are living in a simulation. All I know for sure is that I liked The Lobster more.
Next week: A Ghost Story.