Colin Farrell, reuniting with Lanthimos and a bit bushier and grayer than before, plays Dr. Steven Murphy, a noted and respected surgeon. Externally, he would seem to have it all. He’s powerful and successful with a gorgeous wife named Anna (Nicole Kidman), who happens to be an ophthalmologist. They have two children—15-year-old Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and younger Bob (Sunny Suljic). Steven has befriended a 16-year-old named Martin (Barry Keoghan of "Dunkirk"), the son of a man who died on his operating table a few years ago. Exactly what happened in that room, and how and why Steven has tried to stay close with Martin is unclear at the beginning of the film. Lanthimos often keeps histories and motivations vague, allowing us to fill in the blanks as the film progresses.

From the beginning, something seems vaguely off with the relationship between Steven and Martin. The doctor introduces him as a friend of his daughter’s, but he’s not. And he buys the kid presents, even inviting him over for dinner. Martin becomes friends with Steven’s kids, and a romantic interest for Kim, but there’s a dark undercurrent here from frame one. Something’s just not quite right in the Murphy household, and it’s not only that the good doctor likes his wife to pretend to be under general anesthesia when he has sex with her. The Murphys seem to be just a little off, and Martin more than a little.

Then Bob can’t get out of bed. His legs don’t work. Not long after, he stops eating. Martin tells Steven what’s going on. It’s justice. Steven took his father, and now a member of his family must die. The scales must be balanced. Steven can choose to kill one of his family members and end the nightmare, but they will continue to lose the use of their limbs, refuse to eat, and eventually bleed from the eyes if he does not make a decision. Steven, being a man of science, turns to medicine to explain what’s happening to his family, refusing to believe that it’s some sort of cosmic karma coming to get him. Thematically, Lanthimos is playing with the differences between science and the supernatural. Steven plays God. He saves lives and he makes mistakes that take lives. And he sees the world in that kind of black and white. Martin breaks down his perfectly controlled worldview, and demands something rarely asked of the gods, personal sacrifice.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmq52mnrK4v46tn55lm565rbXNoGSonl2WerStwqucnWWUmrKzeZFpaHA%3D