Review: The Killing Of A Sacred Deer

Image courtesy of A24.

Yorgos Lanthimos' "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is the type of film for which I admired the filmmaking more than the content itself. The film begins as a Greek myth as told by Stanley Kubrick before becoming a Greek myth as told by Michael Haneke or Lars Von Trier at their most shocking. That's not to besmirch the latter two filmmakers - both of whom have made more than a few films that I adore - but Lanthimos is clearly attempting to emulate some of European cinema's enfants terribles with his latest, which often comes across as a picture that wants more than anything to be controversial and unsettling.

This intent is made clear from the picture's first image - a long-held, grotesque close-up of a heart beating during an operation being conducted by Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell), a surgeon in an undisclosed American city. Something seems off by Steven's interactions with his family - he holds conversations with his children, Bob (Sunny Suljic) and Kim (Raffey Cassidy), that are clinical and cold, while sex with his wife, Anna (Nicole Kidman), involves her pretending to be anaesthetized while he does his business.

Even more oddly, Steven meets on the sly with a teenage boy named Martin (Barry Keoghan, of "Dunkirk"), although there's nothing particularly salacious about their relationship. The two mostly meet at diners, where Steven picks up the check, or take walks by the waterfront, where Steven often plies Martin with gifts. As it turns out, Martin's father died on the operating table under Steven's care some years before and the surgeon, although not likely negligent, appears to feel guilt over the matter.

Things take a turn for the extremely strange when, suddenly, Steven's family members begin to lose feeling in their limbs - first, Bob can't get out of bed, although Steven's colleagues can't figure out exactly what is wrong with the boy. Martin informs Steven that to set things right regarding his father's death, Martin must choose one of his family members to kill - or all of them will gradually lose feeling in their limbs, stop eating, start bleeding from the eyes and then die. Shockingly, this begins to happen as Steven attempts to figure out a plan of action.

There are some interesting ideas to be found in Lanthimos' picture, but they are - unfortunately - overshadowed by the director's seeming desire to provoke and outrage his audience above all else. Also, Keoghan's character is, from the start, irritating and it's difficult to determine whether this is a matter of performance or how the character was written and directed. The movie culminates in a sequence that wouldn't feel out of place in Haneke's "Funny Games," which is one of the few films in that great director's body of work that I just can't get behind.

Lanthimos has talent, I've no doubt of that. His breakthrough was the bizarro shocker "Dogtooth," which chronicled the story of two parents who convince their children that the outside world is dangerous and, therefore, keep them locked up in their home and fenced-in backyard, where they take part in increasingly disturbing games. Yes, that film also aimed to get under its audiences' skin, but the film was frequently hilarious and more absurdist than punishing and cruel.

The director's follow up was "Alps," which didn't do it for me, and - after that - the acclaimed "The Lobster," which I liked and thought was highly original, even if I didn't love it as much as some others did. "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is often gorgeously shot - its early tracking shots that follow Farrell eerily through the corridors of his hospital reminded me of the camerawork from "The Shining" - and some of the deadpan humor reminiscent of Lanthimos' earlier works pops up in the first half of the film - most notably, an extremely bizarre non sequitur in which Farrell brings up his daughter's menstruation at a dinner party.

But ultimately, this film is of the type that desperately wants to get a rise out of its audience - at times, to the point that it results more in eye rolls than outrage. This is a filmmaker with a unique visual and narrative style, so it's disappointing that his first film set in the United States comes off as slightly half baked. There's a lot of talent on display in this picture - from Thimios Bakatakis' cinematography to Farrell's committed performance - but it's often at the service of tiresome shock tactics and a concept that doesn't pay off.