BRING THEM DOWN - Mark Reviews Movies

Bring Them Down, Mubi

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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 6, 2025

Director Christopher Andrews' screenplay for Bring Them Down tells the same story from two different perspectives. Well, it's probably better to say it's seen from the point of view of two separate characters. Those men's outlooks on the world, other people, and themselves are eerily similar, and that's the source of both conflict and tragedy in this film.

The first narrative perspective belongs to Michael (Christopher Abbott), the son of a shepherd in rural Ireland. He now runs the operation, as it has been for fathers and sons of his family for 500 years according to his old man Ray (Colm Meaney), whose knees have given out and who can no longer work or even get around the house on his own. There's nowhere else for Michael to go and nothing else for him to do at this point in his life.

Our first introduction to the character, though, comes by way of a prologue some decades earlier. Andrews never shows a younger Michael in this scene, as the young man drives his mother and girlfriend down the only country road to and from the family's farm. The mother (played by Susan Lynch) informs her son that she'll be living with her sister from now on, because she can no longer take Ray, his attitude, and his behavior.

It's not long before we understand exactly what the mother means by this. Even in his physically restricted form, Ray is a domineering man, who wants everything his way and is quick to anger at even the hint that he won't get what he wants.

Meanwhile, the choice to prevent the camera from eyeing Michael in that prologue is a potent one. As the unseen man speeds up the car and starts taking the road's winding turns hard, we only see the mounting terror on the faces of the mother and girlfriend, who realize Michael's anger at this news has completely overcome him. In a story that's fundamentally—from its overarching theme to its actual structure—about actions and consequences, this is a decisive way for Andrews to keep our focus on the latter, especially when it comes to unintended consequences and ones wrought upon those who aren't even involved in the actions in the first place.

Those decades later, Michael is still living with his mother's death, after the car went off the road in his fit of rage, and everything else that followed. The girlfriend, named Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), was injured in the wreck, leaving a long scar down the side of her face, and ended up marrying another shepherd in the area named Gary (Paul Ready).

In fact, the two farming families share some land on a hill where the flocks are sent or left to graze. The story proper begins when Ray gets a call from Gary, who tells his neighbor that Gary's son found two of Ray's rams dead on the hill. This could be devastating for Ray and Michael's business, so the son goes to Gary's farm to check on the carcasses for any signs of disease. Instead, Gary's son Jack (Barry Keoghan) says he has already disposed of the dead sheep. Michael, who has that one old and specific reason to resent Gary, suspects something is off about the neighbor's tale.

Admittedly, Andrews' plot isn't much. Michael follows through on his suspicions, discovers that the two rams are alive and now part of Gary's flock, and makes it his mission to retrieve the sheep. We don't need much more than, as it turns out, because these characters are so filled with resentment, worry, regret, and anger brimming just beneath the surface that it seems any old bit of conflict, either minor or as substantial as the well-being of their family's generation-spanning business, could lead to what happens here.

The first half or so follows Michael, as he investigates the missing sheep, discovers Gary's apparent lie about them, and becomes conflicted about how far to take his goal to take back the rams. Almost unavoidably, it gets out of hand in horrifying ways involving Michael's flock, and definitely inevitably, Michael is spurred to action by his anger and the push his demanding father gives him.

The second section shifts to Jack, whose own story becomes, not so much a reflection of Michael now, but a view, perhaps, of what that younger, unseen Michael from the prologue might have been like. Here's a young man overwhelmed by the pressures of his family's business and of seeing his family potentially collapse in front of him.

Through him, we learn of the financial strain Gary is suffering—not helped by a recent flood that ruined the only bridge leading to the grazing grounds and Ray's obstinance in refusing to let his neighbor simply drive through his property—and Caroline's frustration with her life. From there, Jack sets out on a mission to save his family.

Everything about Michael's story takes on a new context with this perspective, since we learn how blinded by personal grudges he is to miss what's really happening behind his back, and Michael's own story lends a greater weight to Jack's. We recognize how alike the two men are and how even more similar they could be if all of this desperation, this impulsive behavior, this seeming need to retaliate, and this unwillingness to think before acting continues.

From the structure of the script, we know all of that will continue, because it plays out as it has already played out before that—and, because of the prologue, before that again. To be sure, the story of Bring Them Down becomes brutal and violent, but Andrews doesn't revel in it. Just as there are no real villains here (although Ray comes close), there are neither thrills nor righteousness in these actions—just the deeds of sad, lonely, and desperate men who know nothing else.

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