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Calvary - Movie Review

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5 stars

Writer/director John Michael McDonagh returns with a vengeance in Calvary, a dark comedy that expertly juggles the sacred with the profane.  The film takes its name from the hill where Jesus was crucified and, yes, it deals with sacrifice as one priest knowingly faces life with exactly one week left in it.  You will be and should be on guard as you settle into the mystery of exactly which parishioner will kill the priest who watches over his flock along the west coast of Ireland.

Father James (Brendan Gleeson) wasn’t always a priest.  He was married.  He had a daughter.  He struggled with everything but – after the sudden death of his wife – retreated to the ocean for a life of solace and peace as he studied the gospel and became one of its spokesmen.  Unfortunately, he’s been selected as a sacrifice by one of his parishioners, speaking from the dark of a confessional box, who gives him exactly one week to put “his house in order” before meeting his destiny on the beach with a bullet to the head.

And that’s only the beginning of the movie.

What follows is a journey through light and darkness as Father James meets with Father Timothy Leary (David Wilmot) and the rest of his flock, going about his daily business as the next Sunday tick, tick, ticks ever so closer.  He believes he knows exactly who has threatened him but doesn’t know what to do about it.  He can’t exactly go to the police about it.  His agony isn’t expressed as he visits his flock, giving them comfort as best he can. 

As viewers, we have no clue which one of the problem church members it is.  There’s the local butcher (Chris O'Dowd), the pompous squire (Dylan Moran), he sinister publican (Pat Shortt) and the naughty doctor (Aidan Gillen).  There’s also his troubled daughter, Fiona (Kelly Reilly), who adds the only support to him as he walks straight into his own death.  Is it intentional?  Is it suicide?  McDonagh juggles all the characters and the suspense in such a fashion that the dark humor of Calvary damn near becomes a potboiler as the confrontation on the sandy shore looms.

We make our own messes.  McDonagh reminds us of this as each of Father James’ efforts to rectify a situation comes back to haunt him in some fashion.  Death stalks him almost nightly.  Whether comforting an aging writer (M. Emmet Walsh) or talking a socially awkward young man (Killian Scott) out of joining the Army, there is little reprieve for him and certainly little emphasis on his virtues.  Forgiveness is the only answer.  You will meet a lot of miserable characters – from bored house wives coking up in the restrooms not bothered enough to shut the door to atheists who attend church on Sunday out of self-loathing – and certainly, much of Calvary will seem like Hell on earth.  Still the town’s sign reads Easkey.

Gleeson is a mighty powerhouse throughout Calvary.  He controls the words of McDonagh’s script like a wizard standing upon the rocks of Sligo conducting its surf.  Engaging from beginning to end, Gleeson has more of a presence here than the God he worships.  You can’t convince me that he has ever been this good before.  Career-defining is a term that comes to mind when processing the results of the film.

The low road to exaltation never shined like this before.  Calvary is a must-see.

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Calvary - Movie Review

MPAA Rating: R for sexual references, language, brief strong violence and some drug use
Runtime:
102 mins
Director
: John Michael McDonagh
Writer:
John Michael McDonagh
Cast:
Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly
Genre
: Drama
Tagline:
Calvary
Memorable Movie Quote: "It's just you have no integrity. That's the worst thing I could say about anybody."
Distributor:
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Official Site: https://www.facebook.com/CalvaryMovie
Release Date:
August 1, 2014 (limited)
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
No details available
Synopsis: Father James (Brendan Gleeson) is a good priest who is faced with sinister and troubling circumstances brought about by a mysterious member of his parish. Although he continues to comfort his own fragile daughter (Kelly Reilly) and reach out to help members of his church with their various scurrilous moral - and often comic - problems, he feels sinister and troubling forces closing in, and begins to wonder if he will have the courage to face his own personal Calvary.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

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