Lenny Abrahamson (born 1966) is an Irish film director and writer.
Educated in physics and philosophy at Trinity College Dublin, where he set up a filmmaking society with some of his friends, he was offered a scholarship to study for a PhD in philosophy at Stanford University. However, he returned to Ireland before completing the course to take up filmmaking professionally, directing commercials in the UK and Ireland. He made the transition to feature filmmaker in 2004 with the dark comedy Adam & Paul, directing two more well-received films in Ireland and the four-part series Prosperity, followed by the 2014 comedy-drama Frank, starring Michael Fassbender. His most prominent film so far was the 2015 adaptation of the Emma Donoghue novel Room, which was nominated for four Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Brie Larson winning Best Actress).
Abrahamson is slightly unusual as an Irish director, in that his movies tend to put relatively little emphasis on dialogue (compared to, say, the McDonagh brothers), the more common style being a holdover from the tradition of theatrical writers like Wilde and Synge. Instead he takes a more unobtrusive approach of letting characters come through in actions and quiet contemplative moments. He also shows much more of an influence from European rather than American directors, having named people like Aki Kaurismäki and Werner Herzog as influences – Garage has even been favourably likened to a Robert Bresson film. His movies tend to focus on outsiders with an idiosyncratic perception of the world, and have a somewhat spiritual feel.
Films:
- Adam & Paul (2004)
- Garage (2007)
- What Richard Did (2012)
- Frank (2014)
- Room (2015)
- The Little Stranger (2018)
Tropes common to Abrahamson and his works
- Anti-Hero: His protagonists tend to have moments of moral ambiguity to keep the audience from sentimentalising them.
- Bittersweet Ending: Even Frank, probably the most upbeat film, ends on a somewhat melancholy note as Jon gives up on his dreams of being a musician.
- Black Comedy: Adam & Paul centres on the antics of two homeless drug addicts, and plays like a series of Laurel and Hardy sketches.
- Creator Thumbprint: Bodies of water feature in each of the films, often involving the deaths or transformations of characters.
- Downer Ending:
- Adam & Paul: after the two spend the night getting high, Adam winds up dead on a beach the following morning. Paul, waking up next to him, wanders offscreen. A moment later he comes back, takes the rest of the heroin from Adam's pockets, and leaves again.
- Garage: after tentatively forming a few relationships over the course of the summer, Josie is called in for questioning for sharing a pornographic tape and alcohol with David, is rejected by Carmel, and it's implied the garage where he lives is going to be sold to property developers. The film ends with him committing suicide in a river.
- What Richard Did: More ambiguously than the other examples, but it's implied that Richard never confesses to killing Connor and goes unpunished. His relationship with his father is also irreparably damaged, Lara and his friends have left him, and the final scene depicts him alone and detached at college.
- Hidden Depths: Usually clownish or comical characters revealing deeper sensitivity. Richard inverts this by instead focusing on the weaknesses and failings of its alpha male protagonist.
- Oireland: Strongly averted. His Irish films are very naturalistic, and the comedy of Adam & Paul is more in line with the gallows humour of Samuel Beckett than anything else.
- One-Word Title
- Production Posse: Collaborated with writer Mark O'Halloran on his first two movies and Prosperity, and with musician Stephen Rennicks since Richard.
- Random Events Plot
- Scenery Porn: Shots of the sky in Garage and the desert and island footage in Frank.
- Silence Is Golden
- Time-Compression Montage: Usually combined with voiceover from different scenes within the montage.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: What Richard Did is based on a much-publicised killing that occurred in Dublin in 2000. Frank is inspired by Machester musician Frank Sidebottom
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