Review of Silence (2017) by Viet Phuong N — 16 Jun 2017

Supposed to be an inspiring cinematic experience, this film turned out to be very underwhelming with slow pace, uneventful script, and uninspiring acting. Of course the source material being a psychological novel with strong focus on theological thoughts must make it difficult for Martin Scorsese to translate its values into his language of cinema.

But such obstacle should not be considered an excuse for such beacon of world cinema like Scorsese, especially when the film still possesses the best technical characteristics of a Scorsese's work, from the cool palette of cinematography (Rodrigo Prieto really is a dependable DoP), to the smooth editing by none other than Thelma Schoonmaker, but the poor performance by Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and ALL Japanese actors did not provide the audience with any chance to sympathize with the ordeal of the film's protagonists.

The acting of the Japanese cast is really atrocious, the often-charismatic Tadanobu Asano included, which can be attributed to either poor casting, or lackluster direction of Scorses, or simply subpar talents, or all of them, but when even Liam Neeson could not impress the viewers (his way smaller role in "Gangs of New York" is much more impressive than his appearance in this film), one should question the quality of film-making here.

Cinephiles all over the world can only hope that Scorsese will bounce back in his next film, because this one is really disappointing given his high standard and consistent turn-out.