Calvary

The title of Calvary is never mentioned over the course of the film, but its meaning isn't terribly difficult to understand; this is a film about an Irish priest who is approaching his own death, after a man confronts him in the confessional booth and tells him that he's going to shoot him in a week. Theoretically, Calvaryis a mystery about who the assassin is (or will be, I suppose), but it's never really the focus of the film; rather, the film is focused on the priest as he makes his travels through the town and approaches his death, dealing with the business of his town and doing his best to settle his accounts, whether it's helping his suicidal daughter (from a marriage that ended before he took up the priesthood), trying to deal with an arrogant wealthy investor, navigating the thorny issues around a woman who may or may not be in an abusive relationship, or simply dealing with the abuse, mocking, and need that surrounds him on all sides in his small Irish town. As played by the always excellent Brendan Gleeson, James is a remarkably rich and complex character; while he's undeniably a good man (indeed, such is the reason he's targeted), he's more complex than simple, and his struggles with faith and the issues therein give the film a feel closer to something that Paul Schrader might have made (there's a lot of The Last Temptation of Christ here in many ways). It's not surprising that Calvary is the work of a man who got his start writing plays; it gets a little monologue-heavy at some points, and the characters all end up feeling closer to representatives of ideas or archetypes, even while they're all allowed plenty of room to breathe. But none of that detracts from the power of the film, which grapples with the reputation of the church, the place of faith in the modern world, the role of the priesthood, and what it means to atone and to forgive, not only from a religious perspective but also from a human one. It's a rich, deeply satisfying film, and from the astonishingly beautiful cinematography to the knockout performance by Gleeson, it's a spectacular and wonderful piece of filmmaking that will leave you with plenty to contemplate.


- Josh Mauthe

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