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CALVARY Send This Review to a Friend
The resentment against the abuse of children by priests is given a new twist in “Calvary,” written and directed by John Michael McDonagh and set in a town in Ireland. It is a story of vengeance planned against an honorable priest for the sins of others. Instead of plotting against an actual perpetrator, one who suffered in his childhood is so consumed with hatred that he wants to lash out at a good man he sees as a representative of the church. The story is also a mystery tale. Who is the one who in a confessional booth at the outset of the film tells the priest that he will kill him? And will the threat be carried out?
Brendan Gleeson gives another standout performance in his standout career as Father James, who is not a simple man. On the one hand he is compassionate. But he also has a temper when provoked. His very decency earns the resentment of some in the village, and there is a violent scene in a local pub in which he is given a severe beating. He is also a priest who can drink too much when events get him down.
He also approaches life with fatalism, a Christ-like willingness to suffer for the sins of the world. Gleason makes the character as written larger than life. He is a bear of a man who dominates the film and becomes the embodiment of what religious principles should be.
There are other good performances as well. One is by the excellent actor Chris O’Dowd as Jack Brennan, a nasty piece of work with grievances. Another is by Kelly Reilly with her poignant depiction of Fiona, father James’s daughter, who feels abandoned by his decision to join the priesthood after the death of his wife. McDonagh achieves a moving scene of reconciliation between them, and Reilly leaves us with concerns about her should anything happen to her father after this new tenderness. (O’Dowd has recently excelled on Broadway as Lennie in “Of Mice and Men,” and I also enjoyed Reilly in her performance in the film “Chinese Puzzle.”)
“Calvary” is rich in local color, giving us a picture of what life in the particular village is like, and providing supporting characters all intriguingly portrayed by a good cast. The mood, of course, is mostly grim, given the hostility, both lurking and overt. The overall result is involving and upsetting, with the filmmaker pulling no punches in the juxtaposition of good and evil, and the portrait of a priest who does not flinch from accepting life as it comes in trying to uphold his chosen faith. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release. Reviewed July 30, 2014.
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