Calvary (2014)

Directed by: John Michael McDonagh
Country: Ireland / UK

Movie Review: Miles away from the cheerfulness and hilarity of “The Guard”, “Calvary” is another stimulating effort from English-born (of Irish descent) filmmaker John Michael McDonagh, this time in a dark drama with religious connotations. The film starts with a man confessing to a priest he was raped by another priest as a child. He asks which remedy will ease his pain and threatens to kill the priest next Sunday; the priest nothing has to say to him at the moment. The well-natured priest is Father James Lavelle who grieves with the problems of the inhabitants of his small Irish country town, while hosts his vulnerable daughter, Fionna, after a suicide attempt. Then we are introduced to a lot of problematic different characters. Some of them are connected with evil forces, some of them are really repented of their sins, and others are just good souls trying to balance an unbalanced world. As Father James is going through his calvary we wonder if he will definitively have to be sacrificed for the sins of others and his church, or if he will be able to help such desperate souls. The film exposes loss of faith, the roles and responsibilities we have in this world, and reaches us with forgiveness, the final and necessary conclusion for such a dark film. McDonagh’s direction was praiseworthy often using close-ups to emphasize the characters feelings, and Brendan Gleeson’s performance was compelling enough to make you want to see this film, even considering a slow start that only gains bigger proportions in its last third. “Calvary” won the Berlinale’s Panorama prize attributed by the Ecumenical Jury.