Jack Reynor

In Midsommar (2019), Jack Reynor’s Christian fails to offer reassurance, and Reynor makes that failure look entirely ordinary. He does not make the bad boyfriend automatically fascinating, or invite us to admire how unpleasant he can be. We felt for Dani because his lack of comfort is so easy to recognise. A grand confrontation would give her something clearer to answer. The performance keeps our attention on what Dani is having to live with.

His breakthrough was the lead in Lenny Abrahamson’s What Richard Did (2012), and morally uncertain young men have remained a recurring part of the work. Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) took him into major studio filmmaking, without ending his involvement in Irish independent films. John Carney’s Sing Street (2016) belongs to a continuing collaboration in music-driven films. Television work includes The Peripheral (2022). Carney has worked with him on three films, a continuity worth noting amid those changes of scale.

Reynor has said that people can find themselves in either Christian’s or Dani’s position, depending on the relationship. That is a useful starting point for the part: Christian cannot be safely unlike anyone we know. Ari Aster’s black comedy also depends on the friction between the visitors and their hosts. His direction makes room for awkwardness as well as dread, and Reynor’s unshowy approach helps keep the failing relationship convincing amid the elaborate festivities.

Florence Pugh gives Midsommar its force, and our admiration for Reynor comes with that qualification. Nor does the strong casting cure everything around it: the festivities run long, and some of the broader humour interrupts the dread. Reynor is doing a specific job well within a film that asks for more patience than it always earns. Start there for him, but do not expect Christian to be pleasant company.