Calvary (2014)
Certified: 18
Duration: 101 minutes
Director: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O’Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Gary Lydon, Isaach de Bankolé, Orla O’Rourke, David Wilmot, Domhnall Gleeson, Pat Shortt, David McSavage, Dylan Moran, Killian Scott, Marie-Josée Croze
KRS release
John Michael McDonagh 2011’s The Guard was an exceptional action comedy. In his second feature, the director collaborates once again with Brendan Gleeson to deliver a masterful heart and soul-wrenching film, that is, in my opinion, one of the best films of this year.
If one were to boil it down to its essence, this film is about a priest in a country village who digs into what faith is and what man makes of it, the Church and how people look at priesthood.
The opening of the film will reel the audience in hook, line and sinker. Gleeson plays Fr James, who hears confession from a person he does not know. The sinner tells him what he has gone through and that he will exact his revenge on the innocent priest by killing him in the next seven days.
This leaves the priest at a conundrum and he starts to suspect all the members of his little congregation as possible murderers. He starts looking deeply at his devoted flock and sees them under a different light and with a new perspective. What he discovers is not what he thought he knew. While the seven days given to him are ticking away, he learns some dark truths about his community.
As he digs deeper he finds that many of the townsfolk have a lot to hide: a vehemently atheist doctor (Aiden Gillen), an unhappy but very wealthy man (Dylan Moran), a young man (Killian Scott) who wants to join the army in order to purge himself of his desires, a police inspector (Gary Lydon) who is a bit shady, the butcher (Chris O’Dowd) who reveals a lot about his sex-hungry wife (Orla O’Rourke) and also an American writer (M. Emmet Walsh) who is considering his options about life and death.
As the film progresses, the priest’s journey becomes more personal and more troubled
What is compelling about this film is that each character carries a lot of weight. Gleeson is placed at the centre of this well-honed cast and provides it with a moral soul through his feedback and reactions to all that he hears. He looks and walks the part of a priest who has been through Calvary already and yet he is being given another week to walk through Calvary again.
At the centre of all this despair I rooted for him as his vulnerability makes him seem starkly defenceless.
As the film progresses, the priest’s journey becomes more personal and more troubled. He has to make do with the revelations – some of which are personal such as the excellent scene where he meets his daughter (Kelly Reilly) on the beach and he is reminded of how human he is and his own mistakes.
All this is delivered in a production package that is sharp and well rounded. Patrick Cassidy’s elegiac score sits well with the coastal village setting and the themes the film explores so well with wisdom, a smile and also pain.