Review of Calvary (2014) by Patrick K — 13 Apr 2014

It was refreshing to see a film so uncompromisingly anti-Catholic. There were moments of utter brilliance, surfacing underlying hatred of the priesthood from people who a few years ago would have have been advocates of the church.

The good priest ultimately pays the price for the sins of his cloth. Despite seeing the good being sacrificed it was a disturbingly satisfying moment to see the final scenes take their course. Brilliantly acted and filmed.

However, I didn't consider this a great film, certainly not warranting this score. The film did not engage us enough with the characters. There were too many and their relationships with the priest and each other didn't make much sense.

Their individual stories provided a vehicle to illustrate how irrelevant the church was now in contemporary Ireland but I was left not really caring about any of them. That is apart from the protagonist who had been wronged, he acted the final scenes with eye watering skill and conviction.

Now I have written this I feel more sympathetic to the film and would give it another go.