The Killing of a Sacred Deer **** ½ / *****
Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos.
Written by: Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou.
Starring: Colin Farrell (Steven Murphy), Nicole Kidman (Anna Murphy), Barry Keoghan (Martin), Raffey Cassidy (Kim Murphy), Bill Camp (Matthew), Sunny Suljic (Bob Murphy), Alicia Silverstone (Martin's Mother).
With each of his films, I grow more in awe of Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos – not necessarily because each film is better than the last (they aren’t) – but because each film is a strange high wire act, with so many ways they could go wrong, and only one way to go right – and somehow, he pulls it off. His latest, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, is hilarious and horrifying and heartbreaking, sometimes all at the same time, in the same scene. Lanthimos has made a film that will challenge those few audiences who still want that in a film – and like he did in Dogtooth and The Lobster – made a film that you won’t soon shake.
The film stars Colin Farrell as Dr. Steven Murphy – a heart surgeon, with an outwardly perfect life – beautiful wife, Anna (Nicole Kidman), two kids, and girl of 15 Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and a boy a few years younger, Bob (Sunny Suljic). They live in a nice neighborhood, in a beautiful house and seem to have it all. Behind those closed doors though – of course – not everything is quite right, there are fractured and fissures in the family that we noticed, but are not discussed. These are eventually exploited by Martin (Barry Keoghan) – a 16 year old boy, who Steven has “befriended”. Martin’s father died on Steven’s operating table a few years ago, and Martin seemingly wants Steven to take over for the father he lost. In one hilariously awkward sequence, Steven goes to Martin’s house for dinner – where his mother (Alicia Silverstone – perfect in a one scene role) tries to seduce him. When that doesn’t work, Martin has to bring out the bigger guns. He tells Steven that one of his family members needs to die – Steven killed Martin’s father, so one of his family needs to die to balance the scales, see. Steven can choose which one to kill – but if he doesn’t, all three of them will die – they’ll become paralyzed, refuse to eat, and eventually bleed from their eyes. When both Kim and Bob become paralyzed from the waist down – Steven still doesn’t believe what is happening. He turns to science to solve the problem – which, of course, it cannot.
Lanthimos isn’t really one for backstory or explanations in his films – there was no indication of why society had gone the way it did in The Lobster for instance, or why the parents do what they do in Dogtooth. The same holds true here – we never really understand if Steven was at fault for what happened to Martin’s dad – he says he wasn’t, but his friend and anesthesiologist Matthew (Bill Camp) says he was (to be fair, Matthew is receiving an awkward hand job at the time). How Martin accomplishes what he does is also never explained. In this case, I take these as good things – what explanation would really suffice, anyway?
Lanthimos has gotten to the point in his career that he is able to cast the right actors in his films – those who get in, and are willing to go there with him. Farrell is just as good here as he was in The Lobster last year, in a much different role. Here, he is essentially playing a man who views himself as God – as infallible – who makes life and death decisions, but doesn’t want to deal with the consequences. He is oddly cold and clinical throughout much of the film – grasping at straws in science to explain the unexplainable. Nicole Kidman is also good – once again, showing just how adventurous an actress she really is – playing Anna, who on one hand is a caring mother, and yet, she exactly doesn’t offer to sacrifice herself now does she to save her kids? Barry Keoghan, who you will remember as the young guy who gets on the boat when he shouldn’t in this summer’s Dunkirk, is chilling as Martin. The kids are good – especially Cassidy as Kim, who falls for Martin, and sings a pop song in a haunting way that hasn’t left my head since. I’ve already mentioned Silverstone – and I don’t know what made Lanthimos think of her, but I’m glad he did.
The film is shot in Lanthimos’ trademark style – there are lots of long, flat, tracking shots, intercut with some haunting overhead visuals. Lanthimos drains much of the emotion out of his actor’s performances, and does the same thing with his shots. The production design is perfect – lots of cold, sterile hospital corridors, which is echoed in Steven’s home as well.
I’m not quite sure that the film quite rises to the level of Dogtooth or The Lobster – it isn’t quite as original as either of those films, and feels more like Lanthimos putting his own spin on a Michael Haneke film. Yet, oddly, it works. The film is a mixture of tones as genres – scenes that shouldn’t be funny are, and scenes that should horrifying are hilarious, and often at the same time. Lanthimos continues to push himself – and us in his audience – to tough places, forces us to confront harsh things – and then doesn’t give us the answers. He is one of the best directors working anywhere in the world right now.
