Calvary is an Irish drama film released in 2014, written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, staring Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran, Domhnall Gleeson, M. Emmet Walsh and Isaach de Bankolé.
The film was well received by critics and audiences alike, it also won several awards. The film went on to gross around £16.9 million in total at the box office.
The film is well directed and the dialogue is very good, there are multiple meaningful scenes that are between the main character Father James (Brendan Gleeson) and of the other characters that are especially well written. These scenes move from darkness, a loss of hope and sadness, to moments of dark humour, light heartedness and hope. But they show a sad truth to many lives of the modern person and their relationship with faith and the church. The film manages to balance these emotions well and the plot keeps a decent pace and continues to keep your interest.
The film has a sad undertone throughout, as the film shows the loss of faith of the world and the difficulty of Father James to cope with this and with the new burden, he is now burdened with.
I would say the film does have one large fault, that is that it spreads throughout the film some of the lies and disinformation that is spread about church history. Though it does not dwell on them or go into them in any detail, just the acceptance of these lies hurt the credibility of the film. But if prepared these can be ignored or taught away.
I think this film is a good film but I can’t help but feel that it may be a bit of a depressive watch for some, certainly it does show a story of despair with only a little glimpse of hope. I do not think this is a must watch but in a group context it could be useful for showing how we the laity must act to save our fellow man.
RC