A serene birthday meal for two couples at a farm goes horribly wrong. Barbarians feints and parries before delivering wicked knockout blows. What starts as an exploration of the characters’ castration, duplicity, and envy mutates into something else entirely. It is not until several dark reveals that you realize where the story is heading. Within its short runtime, the film packs in a lot of subtle details. Not all of it works though. But when it hits the fan, you’ll be hooked.
Lucas (Tom Cullen), a macho arrogant property developer creates a cringe-worthy advertisement for his new project with his girlfriend Chloe (Inès Spiridonov). Gateway seems like an ideal house; located in rural England near an ancient druid stone. The mansion is owned by another wealthy artist named Gateway One sculptor and painter . If she can design exclusive artwork to attract rich clients. Eva(Catalina Sandino Moreno) loves it here . Adam(Iwan Rheon), her meek husband ,has reservations about moving to Gateway.
Eva invites Lucas and Chloe over for dinner to celebrate Adam’s birthday as couples’ friends. He cannot stand Lucas who always makes fun of Adam because of his height as well as undermines his masculinity constantly. The evening starts off innocently enough though . While Lucas keeps on insulting him, Adam remains silent so that he does not say anything in retaliation . This changes when Lucas tells Eva that he wants them to revise their deal on the property. This makes Eva very angry and it sets off a sequence of bloody events.
Barbarians is told in chapters first we meet the couples then there are other glimpses into what really happened with Gateway . Charles Dorfman who has worked on films such as Honest Thief and The Lost Daughter uses misdirection throughout this debut feature . Different possibilities are introduced by a grizzly find during opening scenes .The characters’ motives become unclear because of weird discoveries and a disagreement over the property’s acquisition. I honestly didn’t have a clue what was going on in the film. Around dessert, you can see what this whole thing is really about. Just know that no one wants or gets seconds.
The contrast between Lucas and Adam drives the film. Lucas is an embodiment of toxic masculinity that doesn’t want to be changed . He has a large build, beard and he posts aggressively on social media which makes him come out as an idiot . The small-framed Adam also resents being bullied by him . However, he suffers from low self-esteem regarding his wife’s achievements too. They decide to divide everything equally between each other but he is not very happy as she is famous, beautiful and earns much more than he does. This simmering undercurrent becomes a riptide as we learn there’s a lot hidden between them.
Personality conflicts get physical in a vicious third act. Barbarians drops the mind games for fight or flight survival. The violence is terrifying and ugly. A few things were off in terms of my logic about how things progress . All those breadcrumbs Charles Dorfman’s been dropping finally make sense now . It stretches credibility somewhat . But the plot takes such an unexpected turn that I found myself wanting to keep watching.
Barbarians will have negative reactions because of this; multiple twists could be seen as just throwing paint against the wall splatter and seeing what sticks . There are some minor droplets that don’t lead anywhere; they are meant to distract with audience guessing.I don’t perceive it like this though . So, it kept me glued to it all through its running time duration.
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