Calvary – Film Review
Director: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O’ Dowd and Kelly Reilly
Release Date: April 11
When Father James Lavelle (Brendan Gleeson), a good-natured priest, is assured he will be murdered for the acts of abuse of another priest, he surveys his Sligo based community in the days leading up to his supposed execution in Calvary. Also starring Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen, Chris O’Dowd, Dylan Moran, Isaach De Bankolé, Orla O’Rourke and many others, Calvary is the second feature film written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, after The Guard.
I feel I should mentioned before going into reviewing this film that I’m someone with a certain amount of cynicism towards Irish films, especially if they’re particularly “Irishy” if that even makes sense. Both this and The Guard definitely fall into the category of “Irishy” by which I suppose I mean, films that sell the characteristics of its rural Irish characters as quirky. Of course, I don’t think of this as a bad thing in concept, but I feel it often can take the form of a thin gimmick with not a lot of depth, and the supposed exoticism of this “quirky gimmick” can pass successfully with foreign audiences, leaving us, in my opinion, underselling ourselves giving less of a chance for Irish cinema to develop into something with its own strong cultural identity.
Before I come off as too cynical, I’d like to say that I liked John Michael McDonagh’s previous film, The Guard. What disappointed me was the praise it received abroad, as it left me feeling like the opinion outside of this country (Ireland), is that it was the best of what we could do. I genuinely liked The Guard (I feel I should stress that), but I just don’t like the idea going around that there isn’t any further we should go. But that really is just my two cents (or two cent, to keep it within the quart of the realm) and I just wanted to throw this point out there before I get into discussing this new film, and I don’t wish to claim my own opinion is necessarily the most informed one.
Anyway, let me get on with the part that people probably actually care about, the film review.
Calvary displays an impressive and diverse cast. Once again in the lead we have Brendan Gleeson, who, like before with The Guard, carries the film expertly with the right pieces of humour and drama. In a sense, this film is kind of like a sequel to The Guard that one could see as The Priest but that might be a bit unfair. It’s not like we’ve gone from D’Guard to D’Priest, and while I’ve referenced elements of humour being in this film, it is initially a drama, unlike The Guard. Along with Gleeson are comedy favourites like Dylan Moran, Chris O’Dowd and Pat Shortt, Hollywood familiars like Aidan Gillen and Kelly Reilly, and then some surprises like M. Emmet Walsh and Isaach De Bankolé not to mention a memorable but brief appearance by Domhnall Gleeson. All these and other performances accumulate well in creating what is an impressive ensemble piece.
The story too, is an intriguing one, that illustrates interesting points about the contemporary place of the Catholic Church, in the context of a small community, with parts that are critical and others in defense.
The thing is though that, overall, there feels like something is missing about Calvary. The idea is there, all the pieces are in place but the end result doesn’t quite have that extra bit of depth that it should. Considering the fact that the film covers a very current topic, it feels like it should really have something to say, and maybe, in the end, it doesn’t know what it really wants to say on the matter. But the film doesn’t deliver a mixed a opinion or express too strong a sense of confliction. It sort of just hangs in a less specific haze when it comes to having any kind of message.
Most of the scenes are one-on-one conversations between Gleeson and individual members of the cast, which works in giving a sharp narrative and exploring the character but in another way it feels like a collection of vignettes which kind leaves the film a bit thin and melodramatic, considering the conversations are often a bit unnaturally profound. This, along with a quite grand musical score and some not so subtle graceful sequences of somewhat showy cinematography, the film ends up feeling like it’s proclaiming a sense of profundity that I didn’t think was quite there.
But I have to say, I did enjoy the film. Although I have noted its consistency of having one-on-one conversations, it is a good character piece and in this sense an improvement on The Guard. Where The Guard drifted from the perspective of its protagonist and the perspective of how others saw him, this stays more rigidly in one place and one could see all the characters surrounding Gleeson in the film, as extensions of himself. Even if I didn’t feel like the film dug quite deep enough, I did come to like or dislike many of the characters and was intrigued, and while the “grand musical score” and “showy cinematography” as I put it, felt cheesy at times, their technical competence did allow them to be a treat for the senses.
John Michael McDonagh is proving to develop a style for his films that smartly employs the quirks of rural Ireland while showing pinches of Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese (possibly both, or at least one of the two), and its pace and efficiency in story telling are properly crafted.
So at the end of the day, Calvary is somewhat rigid and melodramatic but overall a well written and engaging film with a well laid out cast. It proved entertaining to even a cynic like myself and shows a sense of progress of Irish cinema overall.
Score: 3.5/5
Written by Seamus Hanly
