Barber (2023)

Barber-(2023)
Barber (2023)

Dublin is a bleak and isolating place, as depicted by Fintan Connolly’s work “Barber.” It’s filled with narrow streets, dark bars, and airless rooms. Even the expansive view from private investigator Val Barber’s ostentatious garage of his penthouse apartment feels claustrophobic, devoid of freedom or space. Irish society is quite interconnected, so knowing a secret could put one’s life at risk. Once a grudge is formed, it becomes impossible to dissolve. Barber is set during the early months of the Covid lockdown, which ironically was the time it was filmed. It further enhances the reality we’re all “social distancing,” where frequent Zoom calls have virtually become a novelty. The Ireland in Barber, in fact Dublin, is disoriented in time, oscillating between the past and present. A notable degree of discomfort permeates throughout the narrative, especially along the broken lines.

These details and much more are the nonverbal ambiences of the film, deeply more interesting than the crime being pursued by the disheveled and tortured Barber (Aidan Gillen) While the story revolves around a young lady that has gone missing at twenty years of age, the Garda brutality is claimed to be so severe that even the girl’s grandmother decides to hire Barber to investigate. The wretched depths Barber sinks to in order to obtain some sort of zenith of power are too intense for Barber himself. Too many people are in Barber’s way for him to reach those leads. He deals with vicious assaults, the deep rooted social, political, and institutional nondisclosure and his only allies are a network of terrified potential witnesses that might not even talk. It is 2020 and the potent winds of #metoo is near.

This vaguely correlates the sentiment of the cringe from paranoia and suppression that John Banville emotes in Christine Falls (which Banville published as Benjamin Black), the first book of the ‘Quirke’ mystery series, set in Dublin in the 1950s, when Quirke, a dry drunk pathologist, becomes embroiled in the investigation of young woman’s murder. In the end, Quirke manages to accuse the Catholic Church of various crimes during a time when Ireland was practically a theocracy. ‘Barber’ does not include the Catholic Church as being a major factor, but the string of authority over young women and other innocent girls is a factor everyone seems to suffer with even today. It is after all, not much of a time leap from the 2020 we are in, to somewhere in the middle of the 50s.

Barber, like Quirke, has some problematic issues as well. Even during the more liberal days, they used to keep certain things to themselves. One of Barber’s associates makes fun of the new “ woe Ireland,” but perhaps it is a bit too late for the older generations. The fear of being blackmailed is still a problematic issue. Thankfully, Barber’s burdensome secrets don’t bother him, or he isn’t troubled with the thought of it. Lastly, these are all remarkable details of the Cochrane film by Connelly and producer Fiona Bergin, but however, the paths of revelations aren’t so prominent. It is still enough of a thought provoking issue. Overly, Barber’s personal circumstances are complicated. He is distanced from his spouse (Helen Behan), and their daughter Kate blames the mother for it. Due to cognitive and physical difficulties, Kate was recently injured during a vehicular collision. So much is at stake in regard to her future. Unfortunately, Barber and his ex wife cannot communicate any further. Thus, secrets. Secrets. Secrets.

A bit of broadening and deepening of the crime investigation might have paid off, particularly connecting the ‘woke Ireland’ with all its tensions with respect to the girl who disappeared and whatever she faced. These connections exist, albeit not to a sufficient degree. It’s the difference between plot and story. The plot is the sequence of events the missing girl, her acquaintances, social and latent enemies who are privy to more than they are revealing, while the tensions in Ireland that the real story from my perspective is the conflict between development and retrogression, along with the resentment that keen impulses to build elicit within those who are firmly rooted in the old ways. It is often said that old vices are difficult to abandon, and for those whose interests lie in the perpetuation of the existing power structures, it will be a tough fight to the end. Everything that Barber is attempting with his inquiry is what is identical to the effort and focus of trying to solve those contradictions within him.

Gillen’s work is nuanced, and he has done excellent work not only in “Game of Thrones” over the years, but also in films such as “Sing Street” and “Rose Plays Julie”, where he is truly chilling. Here he can barely put a comb through his messy hair and make it through the day. At every moment, Gillen implies how much Barber wants to have a cigarette and states emphatically that he has ‘quit smoking’. He is barely keeping himself together. He is battling something ‘ravaged’ and void within which is as a result of him keeping his secrets to himself for so long and the damage it has put on him as an individual along with his loved ones. Gillen’s face captures the story behind this character in a remarkable way. 

The film would have fared better with wiser treatment and more focus over all the other themes present. “Barber” as it is, is a rather mundane tale within the crime drama realm but remains an interesting portrayal of a world that is in the process of changing. Even when everyone is “locked down,” which means they’re confined to their houses, progress begins somewhere. Though change is on the move, it cannot be reversed and the powerful even now are attempting to do so.

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