Review of Calvary (2014) by Devin C — 27 Jun 2014

Brendon Gleeson, who in his voluminous black habit looks like a colossal figure of fatalistic doom, plays Father James, a good priest who sincerely cares about the unappreciative inhabitants of his small parish in the west of Ireland. In the confession box Fr James is confronted by a man who claims to be the victim of child abuse at the hands of a catholic priest who is now dead. The unseen man then outlines his somewhat nihilistic plan of revenge: to kill a good priest who has done absolutely nothing wrong. To kill a bad priest, he reasons, would serve no purpose. He tells the hapless Fr James that he will give him one week to put his affairs in order. The execution is fixed for the following Sunday. This very gripping and interesting opening scene introduces a fascinating premise. It promises a rich exploration of what is means to be a catholic priest in Ireland today. Surely it is not easy to be a representative of a church that has over the years been inalterably damaged by shocking scandals of child-abuse. Surely even innocent priests must feel some burden of guilt, however irrational, over the suffering their organization has inflicted upon other innocents. Unfortunately, these interesting ideas are executed in an infuriatingly crass and heavy-handed manner.

Director and writer John Michael McDonagh's follow up to the acclaimed 'The Guard' is problematic for a number of reasons. First of all, I can't help but feel that it might have worked better if McDonagh had taken a slightly more straight-faced approach. As it is the tone of the storytelling wavers uneasily between brooding solemnity and slapdash farce. Fr James is a reasonably well conceived character but the world he inhabits in one of grotesque caricatures who have little in common with humanity. The dialogue is annoyingly kitsch and self-referential and the humour is generally hit-or-miss. What holds the movie together is a terrific performance from Brendon Gleeson, who is utterly believable as a well-meaning and intelligent priest, grappling with vile characters who respond to his efforts of solicitude with indifference, condescension, and even hostility. The movie is helped somewhat by turns from two great comic actors. Dylan Moran is funny as a self-loathing banker (an unsubtle but amusing illustration of post-recession Ireland), and Chris O'Dowd earns some uneasy laughs as a cuckold butcher. All in all, though, neither the story nor the ideas really cohere to anything substantial or thought-provoking and in the end it feels like a missed opportunity.