Calvary Review

Separation of Church And Fate

The topic of religion is one many movies face, including 2014s excellent feature Noah. Calvary is just the latest movie to tackle a topic that is extremely relevant to many people on the planet. The particular religious aspect focused on in this tale is that of the Catholic Church and a man heavily involved in his local church Father James, played by Brendan Gleeson. Gleeson is absolutely the perfect person to play someone of heavy authority in the religious community, as he has the kind of likable personality that can attract people to sermons on Sunday morning but also come across wise enough to be someone to turn to in times of crisis.


Gleeson aces that kind of personality, but also doesn't forget to make sure James is a complex person. I liked seeing the juxtaposition of his uptight moral being against the more morally loose members of his town. Well, I did like it for a certain amount of time. While some encounters are interesting, others drag on forever and soon the film takes on a episodic structure that just makes the affair feel dull in numerous moments. Still, Gleeson keeps things as entertaining as he can make it, and I did love his encounter with an extremely wealthy citizen that ends in of the more absurd urine jokes I've seen in recent times.

We spend this much time with the characters so it can make this small town feel much more alive, as well as helping to heighten the danger present during much of the film. Unfortunately, many of them, such as a dude named Leo, remain hapless caricatures that don't fit in the film in any shape or form. But there is an ace up this movies sleeve. For reasons I won't get into here due to spoilers (though this plot point is depicted in the trailer, but whatever), the movie takes place over a week, from one Sunday to the next, and as we get closer and closer to that succeeding Sunday, the movie becomes a much more compelling animal.

All of a sudden, the film takes on an atmosphere I can only describe as "end-of-days", if that makes sense. Every single second oozes with ominous overtones, and Gleeson manages to make every moment of discouragement or fear really count. While from a storytelling perspective I do need to note that few of the characters the movie spends a grueling amount of time setting up come into any use during later portion of the film, I really don't mind. To put it simply, they weren't anywhere near as fascinating as Gleeson and his current predicament and the film reaches new heights of quality by focusing squarely on him.

One other thing I need to mention here is the films implementation of humor, which runs the gamut from subtle (this one dude in a bowtie has a scene where he discusses his desire to go to war that's super disturbing, but is also darkly hilarious) to over the top, like that aforementioned urine scene. The script (written by the movies director, John Michael McDonagh) is superb in making sure the humorous moments don't overwhelm the exceptional dramatic moments, and that is an accomplishment more than worth celebrating. I wish it was more consistent in quality, but Calvary is still the kind of film that uses the topic of religion in cinematically fascinating ways.