Directed by Nick Rowland
Starring Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan and Liam Carney
Running time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
MPAA rating: R for some strong violence, pervasive language, drug use and brief nudity

by Fiona Underhill

“Don’t go thinking that all violence is the work of hateful men, sometimes it’s just the way a fella makes sense of his world.”

Having already gone through a fairly extensive festival run under the name Calm with Horses, this Irish independent film has had a name change for US release. The two titles are interesting because they reflect both sides of the coin that make up protagonist Arm’s life. There is his family life, made up of his estranged partner Ursula (Niamh Algar) and autistic son Jack (Kiljan Moroney), who does horse therapy sessions with Rob (Anthony Welsh). But ex-boxer Arm (Cosmo Jarvis) lives under the constant shadow of violence because of his best friend Dympna (Barry Keoghan) and his whole family of Devers, including uncles Paudi (Ned Dennehy) and Hector (David Wilmot), who form some kind of drug-dealing Irish mafia. Arm is the ‘arm of the law’ for the Devers family, a ‘heavy’ who is content with roughing up a few wrong’uns in return for cash. But when they want him to go further, it inevitably leads to problems.

Writer Joe Murtagh (adapting from a novella called Calm with Horses, which is part of the Young Skins collection by Colin Barrett) and director Nick Rowland demonstrate that if you’re living the kind of life that Arm is, threats and menace can come at any time. Having a craic at a party can quickly turn sour, jokes can become chillingly serious – these people are unpredictable, turn on a dime and the dynamic is similar to an abusive person gaslighting a partner. The immense pressure isn’t just applied to Arm either, with the elders constantly reinforcing the importance of the family honor to Dympna and using his deceased father as a pivotal weapon in their emotional blackmail and manipulation.

The cinematography by Piers McGrail emphasizes the beautiful and bleak nature of the ‘wild west’ of Ireland. McGrail also shot Glassland – another excellent Irish independent film starring Jack Reynor, Will Poulter and Toni Collette, as well as We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Ordinary Love (which both use confined spaces well). Here, we see the deprivation and emptiness in the fictional coastal town of Glanbeigh, juxtaposed with the stunning green mountains, stormy skies and black lakes of Connemara (where it was filmed). It doesn’t really matter how picturesque your surroundings are if you have nothing. There is a really well-shot car chase scene, with the camera propelling us, along with Arm out of a dark barn into his crappy car. Seeing a car chase on Irish country roads, covered in potholes and road kill, is amusingly refreshing. The camera mostly stays on the hood and wing mirror, tight on Arm, as he pants in desperation.

The electronic soundtrack (by Benjamin John Power as Blanck Mass) is another big selling point, pulsing and driving Arm on to ever more self-destructive acts. Two of the tracks are called Manipulation and Prove Yourself, perhaps showing that even the music is forcing Arm’s hand, as it were and trapping him into a corner he cannot escape from. The score is interspersed with a few classic tracks such as Whisky in the Jar from Ireland’s own Thin Lizzy and Town Called Malice by The Jam, providing rare moments of light relief.

The success of The Shadow of Violence rises and falls on Cosmo Jarvis’ central performance as Arm. Jarvis left a huge impression after Lady Macbeth (starring Florence Pugh) and it is gratifying to see him get such a meaty role here. Arm’s narration really works and Jarvis’ performance gives depth to this Lenny-like lug. His scenes with the (very good) child actor playing the non-verbal Jack and with Algar’s Ursula are particularly strong, as his frustration and desperation is frequently bubbling beneath the surface, threatening to implode. Niamh Algar was recently in the incredible mini-series The Virtues with Stephen Graham and she demonstrates again here a naturally fierce energy, sprinkled with Irish humor. Probably the biggest ‘star’ in the film is Barry Keoghan, of Dunkirk, American Animals and Killing of a Sacred Deer. His accent has subtly shifted from the East to the West Coast of Ireland and he is great as the devil on Arm’s shoulder. He takes the pressure being applied by his uncles literally whispering in his ear and funnels it straight into Arm, the poisonous river of misguided masculinity is channeled into their destructive weapon. Of course, Arm just ends up destroying himself.

It's refreshing to see a ‘gangster’ film set somewhere other than the US and it also takes some getting used to that the IRA is not a factor or mentioned at all, in a film set in Ireland’s criminal underworld. This film focuses on the social deprivation that can lead to some of these choices, as well as the effect of those choices on a small family, who already have their own battles to contend with. It is well acted, shot and scored and is worth seeking out, if you’re able to do so safely.

Opening in select theaters on July 31.