Review of Silence (2016) by Intellicritic — 29 Jan 2017

Silence is a bizarre, illusive movie. Before I saw the film, my Catholic pastor and one of my Catholic news sources had demonized it. Several of my friends, though, told me I should go see it, so I did. The trailer does not do Silence justice! The actual movie not include that riveting, fast-paced soundtrack, nor the trailer's tone.

I would not recommend Silence to the average person, adult, Christian, or even Catholic. To properly digest its contents, this film requires a fervently philosophical Christian mind. Indeed, I felt my faith was burning bright within me after I watched the film. But it is not because of any inspiration that the central characters gave me. In fact, the protagonist turns out to be of the haziest gray between black or white. In the end, we will never know whether he has reconciled himself with God or not. This is, for me, extremely disappointing and uninteresting. I could compare this ending to Inception's, which was a far better psychological film.

Silence is one long movie without much music, and a lot of narration. This approach does allow for some impressive Zen experience for viewers. I will probably never watch it again because of its lack of clarity and message. But, as a devout Catholic I did find it intriguing and thought-provoking. At the end in the theater, one man began clapping as the credits rolled down. I thought to myself that there was no way I could clap for such an unclear message.