TIFF Review: Treacherous Pastures and Neighbors in ‘Bring Them Down’

In the same way that people don’t get to choose their family, they also don’t get to choose their neighbors. While some residents who happen to live on the same street do get along quite well and find considerable common ground, it’s just as likely that they’ll be a terrible fit and create a long-standing contentious relationship based on perceived offenses and generally irritating behavior. Bring Them Down shows what happens when things get complicated and livelihoods are affected, leading to a true devolvement in what could have been a perfectly cordial relationship.

In the film’s first scene, an unseen Michael (Christopher Abbott) drives erratically, resulting in a car crash that kills his mother and ends his relationship with his girlfriend Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone). Years later, he tends to his family’s sheep since his father (Colm Meaney) is confined to a chair while awaiting a knee replacement. When he learns that Jack (Barry Keoghan), the son of Caroline and Gary (Paul Ready), who all live next door, found two of his rams dead on his property, a violent cycle begins where Michael isn’t sure who’s after his livestock and how best to defend his livelihood.

This is a sober, meditative drama that doesn’t feature much conversation. Michael in particular says little, mostly to his agitated and often angry father, who casts a great deal of judgment from his seated perch and, when told by his son that Gary wouldn’t return the animals initially reported dead that Michael believes to be alive, responds that he should just go there and take them. They surely see each other often enough given that they’re in the same business, but their relationship lacks a warmth due in no small part to the awkwardness of Caroline’s history with Michael which ended on a decidedly bad note. 

Bring Them Down is the feature directorial debut of Christopher Andrews, whose past credits include working as a camera assistant on the UK version of Shameless. It stars two top talents who are seemingly omnipresent these days, Abbott recently seen in Swimming Home at Tribeca and back at TIFF following Sanctuary in 2022 and recent Oscar nominee Keoghan also at TIFF this year with Bird. They’re both playing against type, with Abbott putting on an Irish accent and portraying an introverted character who isn’t nearly as gruff or villainous as past parts he’s played and Keoghan barely saying a word while Jack watches his parents at each other’s throats and takes regrettable action based on impulses whose consequences he can’t fully comprehend.

There’s an eeriness to this film that runs through it, never materializing into something truly sinister or putting its main characters’ lives in life-threatening danger. Yet there is something deeply unsettling about the harm that comes to these animals – which should come with a trigger warning for audiences that will want to be comforted by the Irish equivalent of PETA – who are defenseless against their unknown assailants. While Michael does talk to his father, he leads a lonely life, partially because he blames himself for the film’s opening tragedy, which isn’t ever explained in explicit or fully clarifying detail.

Like its main characters, this film can be bleak and uninviting. But it does manage to remain focused and should serve to keep the attention of audiences as they watch two people who don’t communicate well with others struggle to maintain the stability of their existences. Its grainy, unspectacular look complements its pensive pacing, heightening the intrigue when there’s little information to go on, just what audiences are able to see and glean from limited interactions. It may not be entirely satisfying, but the journey includes a great deal of unexpected suspense and involving tension.

Movie Rating: 7/10

Awards Buzz: Keoghan is already an Oscar nominee for his turn in The Banshees of Inisherin, and Abbott is likely to get the role that will get him there sometime soon. This film, however, probably won’t be accessible enough to voters to get either of them there, just another chance to celebrate their successful and continually growing careers.