Calvary
Directed by: John Michael McDonagh
Written by: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Rielly, Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran, Isaach De Bankolé, M. Emmet Walsh, Maria-Joseé Croze, Domhnall Gleeson, David Wilmot, Pat Shortt, Gary Lydon, Killian Scott, Orla O'Rourke, Owen Sharpe, David McSavage
Drama - 100 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 30 Aug 2014
Written by: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Rielly, Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran, Isaach De Bankolé, M. Emmet Walsh, Maria-Joseé Croze, Domhnall Gleeson, David Wilmot, Pat Shortt, Gary Lydon, Killian Scott, Orla O'Rourke, Owen Sharpe, David McSavage
Drama - 100 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 30 Aug 2014
Considering the amount of headlines garnered by the Catholic Church’s cover-up of pedophile priests, especially in Ireland, I am surprised there are not more films exploring the topic. Nuns frequently bear the brunt of criticism on screen (The Magdalene Sisters, 2002, Philomena, 2013) but the priests are conspicuously absent. Many dioceses settle out of court with victims and the Vatican frequently announces new investigations into the past, but what about those who opt out of the legal system; those who consider a vigilante act a more suitable response.
John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary is a dramatic tale of one person’s desire to strike back against the Church that sponsored his abuse. His target is a Church symbol, a good priest, a priest only interested in tending to the spiritual problems of his flock and has never touched a child. The would be assassin aims to send a message to Rome and the world, many of the Church’s ambassadors have harmed good children, now he will harm a good priest.
John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary is a dramatic tale of one person’s desire to strike back against the Church that sponsored his abuse. His target is a Church symbol, a good priest, a priest only interested in tending to the spiritual problems of his flock and has never touched a child. The would be assassin aims to send a message to Rome and the world, many of the Church’s ambassadors have harmed good children, now he will harm a good priest.
The target is Father James (Brendan Gleeson, 2014's The Grand Seduction). He heads a small parish in a small town in County Sligo. In an abrupt hard opening conversation, a random man enters Father James’s confessional and tells a brief history of how he was sodomized by a priest every other day for five years starting at seven years old. The story is difficult for the audience to listen to but the look on Father James’s face tells us he believes it is all too real. The unseen man tells Father James he is going to kill him and will give him one week to get his affairs in order.
In a bold and brilliant move by McDonagh, we have no idea who the antagonist is, but Father James knows and he is not telling. Rather than panic, call the police, or skip town, Father James does what he does best, works his way around town problem solving as best he can. There is the wife of the local butcher who has a black eye either from her husband or her adulterous man friend. There is the depressed alcoholic millionaire who has lost his way in life. There is the young man who does not know how to talk to women and considers the Army the perfect escape out of town.
The town is full of eccentrics and none of them has a kind of word or gesture to share with Father James. The priest is the visible object of their simmering scorn against Rome. Father James has done nothing to offend his parishioners, but he absorbs their collective hatred of all of the Church’s despicable sins. Father James appears more than willing to be his Church’s sacrifice, the means of atonement. In one of the film's most striking scenes, Father James happens upon a young girl walking down a path. He strikes up some small talk about where she's from and where she's going. Her father slams on the brakes of his car when he sees the two of them as if he caught his daughter with a registered sex offender. The hatred seething behind his eyes is visceral.
Unusual for a priest, Father James has a daughter. He entered the priesthood after his wife died. We are not sure if this was an act of grief, escape, or a pure willingness to turn himself over to the Almighty. Before he became Father James, he was also an alcoholic and the stock behind the town pub is ever ready to stare right back at him when he glances over his shoulder at it. The days of the week tick by one by one and grow more suspenseful each sunrise.
Sunrises, the local bright green hills, and crashing waves on the beach are all beautifully filmed by cinematographer Larry Smith, who also shot McDonagh’s 2011 film The Guard. McDonagh has an eye for showing off his native land and the brief aerial shots we see of cloud covered pastures and the sun breaking through onto modest hamlets contrast with the throbbing tension amongst the town’s citizens.
Calvary is deeply affecting whether or not you are a religious soul or believer in Roman Catholicism. The title is an allegory to the location where Jesus offered himself up as a sacrifice. Father James steels his nerve the morning he was told he will be killed and walks down to meet the man who threatens to kill him. Whether he does or not is beside the point, Father James remains steadfast to his town and to his church. If his martyrdom helps cleanse the souls of his aching congregation, so be it. If he is spared, then perhaps the idea of mercy will be its own cleanser.
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