Synopsis
Killing a priest on a Sunday. That’ll be a good one.
After being threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.
2014 Directed by John Michael McDonagh
After being threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.
杀死神父, Calvary †, Calvaire, Calvario, Calvário, Am Sonntag bist du tot, Голгота, Разпятие, Kalvárie, הכומר, Kálvária, 캘버리, Golgota, Golgāta, Kalwaria, Calvarul, Голгофа, Kalvária, İnfaz, Niềm Đau, 神父有难
Can't fault anyone turned off by the glibness of CALVARY, that slight sense of caricature and quirk that permeates the parishioners of Father James' (Brendan Gleeson) little Irish village — especially when wrapped in such grimness (revenge, death, sexual abuse). But dammit, doesn't this clash capture the sublime folly of existence?
How do you cope with the darkness, the everyday malaise? These characters, like so many of us, detach via alcohol and sex, or in less self-destructive fashion, lose themselves in books; McDonagh softens the despair with humor. Sometimes all you can do is laugh.
A thing of rich and raw beauty isn't usually found in cinemas at this time of year. It's predominantly a period when brash blockbusters try to numb our minds and perfunctory cash grabs attempt to pry open our wallets. But John Michael McDonagh's Calvary defies this logic vehemently. It's a film that's imbued with staggering gorgeousness, verisimilitude and a whole heap of panache. Not to oversell it, but Calvary is to John Michael McDonagh what In Bruges was to his brother, Martin. It is, and I predict will be, one of the finest films of the year.
From the stark prologue which begins in a confessionary box with the chilling lines: "I first tasted semen when I was seven years…
What an incredibly unique blend of dark comedy and heavily dramatic themes... wow, this is going to take a while to process. Review pending, but I can safely say that I think this'll be one of the top films of 2014. Brendan Gleeson is at the very tip-top of his game... wow...
A deafening, calm, and challenging work of character building and complex screenwriting; Calvary is a film that filled me more with admiration than anything else. Brendan Gleeson gives a performance beyond words, and even with so many wonderful performances this year, his work here is the best I've seen in 2014. Overall, in spite of some characters that felt "off", the film as a whole is quite good. However, It definitely isn't one that I will be returning to very often. Don't put you off from seeing it though, its one beautiful film.
Edit: I had to raise the rating, as the film builds in grandeur and emotional power in retrospect. And the statement that I wouldn't be returning to it very often was just tiredness talking, I can't wait to see this again.
"I was seven years old when I first tasted semen."
This is the startling first line of the nameless man who sits down in the confession box to be heard by Father James Lavelle (Brendan Gleeson). The man goes on to tell of systematic abuse by a now-dead priest. He then tells Fr. James that he will kill him a week on Sunday as he is a good man. Killing a bad priest would be nothing. Killing a good one? That's a statement.
This is the premise behind John Michael McDonagh's follow-up to The Guard. It retains that films dark humour but this is an infinitely more thoughtful and thematically rich work than his debut.
Fr. James is indeed a…
John Michael McDonagh's Calvary is a darkly funny, powerful & exquisitely-written drama and an existential examination of the struggles of a man of faith, rooted in a very real portrait of grief. Brendan Gleeson is absolutely terrific, whose performance is easily one of the best male performances of the 2010s.
48/100
A film for everyone who thought The Counselor was pretentious and that its philosophical digressions belonged in a more conventionally thoughtful movie about, say, a troubled priest. Gleeson is typically fine, but I found it mostly tedious watching him walk episodically around the village encountering all of the deadly sins, embodied by suspects in the most tedious Agatha Christie-style mystery imaginable. Worse, it's a mystery in which the victim announces that he knows who did it—or who's gonna do it, in this case—literally 10 minutes into the picture...but says nothing, thereby forcibly making us detectives who must spend the rest of the movie scanning for meaningless clues. Imagine how much more interesting and challenging it would have been to…
Opening on a very interesting note, heading downhill from that point & then rising once again in its final moments to culminate on an adequate high, Calvary is a meditation on religion, faith, sin, guilt, revenge, sacrifice & forgiveness that presents its tale in a very calculated manner but in spite of my modest expectations, its story didn't do much for me & the film as a whole is mostly a letdown.
Set in a small Irish town, the story covers one week in the life of Father James, a town priest who while hearing Sunday confessions gets a threat from one of his congregations who plans to kill him on next Sunday because he's a good priest. The plot then covers the…
The World Is More Than Enough 3: You Haven't Seen That Yet?!
2/30 - Ireland
Calvary is a film of necessary misdirection. It is also almost certainly a film that, should any more evidence be required, cements Brendan Gleeson as one of the greatest screen actors of the last 20 years.
The way Calvary starts out, with its startling and frighteningly performed opening scene, in itself isn't enough to dampen the belief that this is going to be yet another Irish comedy-drama that is based around a bunch of small time awful eejits and a smart central guy who rolls his eyes to admittedly hilarious effect at them all.
Gleeson has been the lead in a few of those too.…
Calvary
“A priest should have the heart of Christ the good Shepard.” John Paul II
Popular and sentimental portraits often depict a passive, effeminate Jesus with a herd of sheep surrounding him. Shepherding has always been a difficult and dirty business. Pope Francis noted the characteristic trait of having the “smell of your sheep”, indicating length of time spent with the animals to understand them. Calvary is an excellent depiction of a priest as a shepherd in a real and tangible way.
Set in County Sligo on the west coast of Ireland, Calvary confronts the impact of the Catholic church’s clerical sexual-abuse epidemic and the church’s role in an increasingly secular, post-Christian Ireland. The film reflects on the meaning of…
John Michael McDonagh follows up 'The Guard' with a dark tale that plays like a modern day 'whodunnit'.
Brendan Gleeson is rural priest Father James Lavelle. The startling opening scene sees the priest told in the confession box by an unknown man that he will kill him a week from now. Day by day we see him visit the members of the local community who all in turn could be the would-be assassin.
The supporting cast include the likes of Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen,
Chris O'Dowd and even the great M. Emmet Walsh whose presence is always welcome.
Taking on the Catholic Church and the bankers, there are moments of humour as you would expect from McDonagh but this is a devastating film that lingers long after the final credits have rolled.