Review of Silence (2016) by Terri K — 15 Jan 2017

A fascinating exploration of the philosophical issues that arise during religious persecution, and an interesting look at the realistic facets of self-preservation that even the most devout believers of a faith would go through after being tested so harshly. Silence is a very human story of faith, not a glossy, fairy tale where the hero is rewarded for his/her perseverance.

Liam Neeson is excellent in this film, giving a rare performance that we never get to see from him, and Adam Driver does a great job too, but the main bulk of the screen time goes to Andrew Garfield, who is really motivated to change his image after those Amazing Spiderman movies. He does a well enough job, but you do get the feeling that he isn't capable of pulling off what the script needed him too. Some scenes are less demanding, and he's fine, but some of the really powerful scenes, he struggles with. The film also only explores the time period from the Christian point of view, and fails to relate the Japanese perspective very well. It neglects to mention the political fallout (or even the existence) of the Shimabara Rebellion and how that factored into Japan's decision making. Regardless of all that, Silence is still a really well-executed, well-acted, and well-written piece of historical fiction, and will probably end up being in a lot of top ten lists at the end of this year.

Rating- ????