Movie Review: "Calvary"

Calvary

Directed by: John Michael McDonagh

Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dwod, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen

Rated: R for sexual references, language, brief strong violence, and some drug use

At the opening of John Michael McDonagh's film Calvary, an unidentified troubled man tells a priest, Father James, in a confessional that, within a week, he is going to murder him.  "Not because you're a bad priest.  What would be the point in that?  But killing a good one?  That would be a shock!"  From that point on, we expect to find a detective thriller where Father James, played wonderfully by Brendan Gleeson, goes around, trying to stop his murderer before the eventual date arrives.  But that's not what happens.  Instead, we get a priest trying to minister what may be his final week on earth to a despicable and fallen community, full of adultery, domestic abuse, excess, drug abuse, and just a world (and church) void of integrity.  Father James does not piously sit on the outskirts; he gets his hands dirty with it, he seeks people who hate him, he tries to deal with sin head on, and he has no use for people who simply want to use him or his church.  That's not to say he's a perfect man; he falls into sin, just like the rest of his community, but he passionately seeks restoration and redemption, because he truly sympathizes and pities them.  This is brilliantly pictured when Father James visits a tourist who has just lost her husband in an automobile accident.  Out of all the characters in the story, she is the one facing the most shocking pain in the film, yet she confesses that, despite the accident, she doesn't feel their life was unfair, because she and her husband got to experience love and happiness.  "But many people don't live good lives. They don't feel love. That is why it's unfair. I feel sorry for them,"  Those people that she is referencing are not only the despicable characters in Father James' community, but the very killer who is planning his death.

Without spoiling the film, that last montage is powerfully moving, and brings a wonderful resolution to an overall harsh and upsetting film.  With brilliant performances (particularly from Brendan Gleeson) and boasting my favorite cinematography of any film from 2014, Calvary is a picture about reckless forgiveness in the face of reckless hate, which is about as close of a picture of the true Calvary as one can show.