Review of Silence (2017) by Warwick B — 29 Jan 2017

Martin Scorsese has spent 30 years obsessing over Shusaku Endo's acclaimed novel about 17th century priests travelling to Japan. His big screen adaptation of the book is now finally here and it's an uncompromising and heavyweight movie.

Silence is the extraordinary tale of two young Portuguese Jesuit priests, Sebastiao Rodrigues (Andy Garfield) and Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver), who go on a perilous journey to Japan, where Catholicism has been banned and priests forbidden.

They go in search of their missing mentor Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) who is rumoured to have turned his back on the church and renounced God.

Silence is a monumental piece of spiritual cinema, that's a deep and thoroughly exhausting question of faith. It puts you through hell with no promise of enlightenment.

It's grim, punishingly long, frequently boring and brutally violent for a great many moviegoers. But for those who put their faith in the legendary director, this is essential filmmaking from the church of Scorsese. Just as the faith of the two missionary priests is tested over and over and over again, the repetitive and grueling yet fascinating story, tests the viewer's faith in Scorsese.

The movie is breathtaking beautiful, with some remarkable images and vividly realised shot sequences. It has an excellent leading cast of actors with all three giving first rate performances, though Driver rather than Garfield would surely have suited the central role better. The real stars are the supporting Japanese actors, especially the wheedling Inquisitor Inoue (Issei Ogata) and the smiling, silver tongued Interpreter (Tadanobu Asano).

If you like Scorsese and you like rich, complex cinema, this is pretty damned epic.