Starring Nicole Kidman, Collin Farrell, Barry Keoghan, Alicia Silverstone, Sunny Suljic and Raffey Cassidy
As we venture back into the strange and demented world of Greek Writer/Director Yargos Lanthimo and his writing partner Efthymis Filippou (who also brought us 2015’s psychologically unbalanced ~ THE LOBSTER), we meet Cardiac Surgeon Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell), in the midst of an open-heart surgery…
Back home, attending to her own career, and her children, we meet Steven’s beautiful and determined wife Anna (Nicole Kidman), trying to make this crazy world in which they all exist, as normal as possible…
Unbeknownst to his family, Steven has taken a young man under his wing – the extremely smart, yet emotionally disturbed Martin (Barry Keoghan), and as their friendship, and the premise behind it…seems to be getting more chaotic by the second…Martin sees fit to interject himself into their quiet family life…and the life of their teenage daughter Kim (Raffey Cassidy) too…
When son Bob is taken ill very unexpectedly, and then Kim too…it seems that either there is someone trying to make sure they meet with their demise, although it seems too, that it may be a psychological condition that is keeping them both bedridden…
As the truth about Martin, Steven and their warped and unconventional friendship continue to unfold, it seems that Martin won’t be happy, until Steven endures the same tragic and painful existence that Martin must live out everyday, as he forces Steven to make the ultimate sacrifice ~ in order to get him and his craziness to finally go away…
I give THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER a rating of WAIT AND CATCH THIS FILM on NETFLIX or STREAMING: Lanthimo and Filippou have once again brought a psychologically disturbing, and very surreal story to the big screen, along the same dysfunctional lines as 2015’s equally distressing and traumatizing for me – THE LOBSTER! Farrell’s performance is adequate, Kidman’s too, but the standout performance throughout this film belongs to Keoghan~ as the irrational, and mentally disturbed, grieving son of one of Farrell’s cardiac patients. It was nice to finally see the small, yet remotely intriguing performance of Silverstone’s on the big screen, playing the mother of this very unstable young man, but even that moment of enjoyment couldn’t force me to give this film a better rating, as once again, the storyline of this film, just like its predecessor, went beyond a comprehensible conclusion for me. I realize this family, and their incredible dysfunction are exacerbated on purpose, but the consequence that is forced to be played out throughout this films frames ~ is not only ludicrous ~ but as unsettling for me, as a mother, as it gets. Don’t get me wrong, if you, unlike I, enjoyed THE LOBSTER and it’s warped and totally unconventional storyline, then you may also enjoy catching THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER on an art house screen near you…but if you aren’t into mentally and emotionally disturbing material, then as I suggest, you may want to wait and catch this particular film when it hits on Netflix or streaming…
Kathy Kaiser
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 