Bring Them Down isn’t without merit. It’s a serious-minded adult drama that digs into masculinity, family obligation, and rural hardship with conviction. But it’s also a film that feels like it’s holding back when it should be going for the jugular. Given the caliber of its cast—Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan co-starring—it’s hard not to wish the material had been sharper or more focused.
‘Bring Them Down’ Movie Review
Bring Them Down has the kind of cast that instantly raises expectations—Christopher Abbott, Barry Keoghan, and Colm Meaney, all delivering reliably intense performances in a setting ripe for emotional and physical confrontation. But despite that level of on-screen talent, director Chris Andrews’ feature debut ends up feeling more like a slow burn that never quite ignites. It’s a film with the bones of a compelling 30-minute short stretched to fit the structure of a feature, and while it maintains a gritty tone and moody atmosphere, the storytelling struggles under its own weight.
Set in the rugged Irish countryside, Bring Them Down centers on two feuding farming families. Abbott plays Michael, a quiet but hardened man still haunted by a tragic car crash years earlier that killed his mother—an accident he caused after she revealed she was leaving his father, Ray (Colm Meaney). Ray, now wheelchair-bound, relies on Michael to run their livestock operation. The story kicks into motion when Jack (Barry Keoghan), the son of a neighboring farmer, informs Michael that two of his rams have died and had to be disposed of. That’s not quite the truth—Jack has stolen the animals in a desperate bid to help his struggling family.
From there, the film builds an intense, smoldering first act, rooted in class tensions, long-simmering resentment, and rural isolation. But just as the conflict begins to escalate, Bring Them Down rewinds. Instead of moving forward, it shifts perspectives to retell much of what we’ve already seen, this time from Jack’s point of view. It’s a bold choice that aims to reframe the emotional stakes and add depth to the characters, particularly Jack, whose abuse at the hands of his father Gary (Paul Ready) helps make sense of his decisions. But the structure ends up stalling the film’s momentum rather than enriching it.
Keoghan is magnetic as always, and his portrayal of Jack does add dimension to what at first seems like a cut-and-dried antagonist role. Abbott, meanwhile, brings immense internal torment to Michael, making the animosity between the two feel deeply personal and tragically inevitable. Nora-Jane Noone adds another layer of complexity as Caroline, Michael’s former flame and now Jack’s stepmother, whose scarred face is a physical reminder of the past accident that links these characters in more ways than one.
Andrews clearly understands tone—Bring Them Down is never anything less than brooding, and its sparse, no-frills approach to drama is refreshingly mature. There’s a bleak, tactile quality to the visuals, and the Irish landscape looms over everything like a silent witness to decades of tension and generational trauma. But the film’s structure is its biggest stumbling block. Once the narrative begins to double back on itself, it becomes more repetitive than revelatory, and it never recovers the urgency of its early scenes.
By the time the final confrontation unfolds—Michael and Jack face off at the summit of a mountain in a brief, brutal knife fight—the emotional stakes feel diluted. It’s a moment that should have been cathartic or devastating. Instead, it’s more of a muted punctuation mark than a climactic exclamation.
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Bring Them Down isn’t without merit. It’s a serious-minded adult drama that digs into masculinity, family obligation, and rural hardship with conviction. But it’s also a film that feels like it’s holding back when it should be going for the jugular. Given the caliber of its cast, it’s hard not to wish the material had been sharper or more focused.
Score: 5/10
Bring Them Down (2025)
- Cast: Barry Keoghan, Christopher Abbott, Colm Meaney, Nora-Jane Noone, Paul Ready
- Director: Christopher Andrews
- Genre: Drama, Thriller
- Runtime: 105 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: February 7, 2025
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