Calvary chronicles a week in the life of Irish Catholic Priest, Father James Lavelle (Brendan Gleeson). When we meet him, Father Lavelle hears a haunting confession: the man was abused by a priest in his youth. He considered revenge, but the man is long gone. Instead, he has decided that to make a statement, he will kill Lavelle, whom he considers a good man, on the next Sunday. This opening scene is impressive: we see only Gleeson‘s face while he hears the confession, his face showing, consecutively, patience, sympathy and horror. While he doesn’t seem to take the threat in stride, he does remain calm and composed.
The next day, on Monday, his daughter, played by Kelly Reilly, comes into town by train. He picks her up and finds out she tried to commit suicide by slitting her wrists. They go to a pub, where several jabs about her “making the classic mistake”(cutting laterally instead of vertically) are made by the patrons in the pub. The humor is cruel and sometimes wince-inducing, we soon find out that Calvary is a dark comedy is not an overstatement. Yet, the inhabitants of the Irish town take this type of humor in stride.
During this week, Father Lavelle makes house visits to and talks with many of the villagers: he tries to help a couple that is having marital issues (the woman is sleeping with the mechanic); a sickly old man, living solitarily in a small cottage only accessible by boat, who is waiting for his death; a young woman whose husband passed away while they were on vacation; a man who is greedy and materialistic and cares nothing for people; a young man who wants to join the army purely because he wants to kill.
Moral Terror in an Arrestingly Beautiful Environment
Father Lavelle appears to be a truly good man, with a good heart – Brendan Gleeson plays him convincingly and with integrity. He’s like a giant cuddly teddy bear, and he just wants the world to be a better place. Nevertheless, he is disillusioned, disappointed by the people around him. His composure starts to crack when on the third day, his church is lit on fire.
Over and over, Lavelle is confronted with the corrupted moral choices the people around him make. Despite the fact that he is truly a good man, a pious, loyal priest, he too is sinful – he has a penchant for alcohol abuse. Although he quit drinking when he became a priest, when the stress becomes too much for him to bear, he turns to the glass once more.
A particularly striking scene is when he is strolling through the beautiful landscape of Ireland. The shots of the environment are breathtaking – it has a purity and serenity, to Lavelle’s dismay, none of the characters of Calvary have (and you can see why he takes solace in these strolls), and it serves as an excellent contrast to the faulty moral compass of the people in this film. When he makes his way back to the town, he meets a young girl. They walk down the path together and chat about how she’s there on vacation with her family, until her father hurriedly pulls up with his car, and pushes the girl into his car, sneering at Lavelle that he’s a pervert.
While the movie presents the moral dilemmas and the sinful choices people make over and over, the domineering sin this movie contemplates is that of abuse of children by the Catholic Church. It’s a risky discussion, and the contrast of putting a good priest in the middle of it makes it eerie. Calvary is impressively nuanced in the way that it criticizes the actions of the Catholic priests, as well asthe way the public has handled this issue. In general, it shows how people have become jaded and mistrusting of others. Lavelle, a man who is genuinely good despite his human flaws, is a victim of the mistrust of others.
Gallows Humor and Unusual Sets
When Calvary was announced and I saw it was tagged as a comedy, I was disappointed. I thought this topic was not at all suitable for light humor. Thankfully, while Calvary is very funny at times, it definitely can’t be said it’s light. The humor is cutting, dark and witty. The sets are unusual and frequently arresting, the prime example being the set where Lavelle confronts Jack Brennan (Chris O’Dowd), whose wife is cheating on him and is suspected of hitting her. Brennan works in a butcher shop and they discuss the issue in front of butchered meat (see above).
The screenplay, written John Michael McDonagh, is unique in every way. McDonagh directed the film, too, and you can sense that he is intimately familiar with his script. Both screenplay and direction are subtle, smart and exquisite. Larry Smithwas the appointed cinematographer for Calvary, who was also cinematographer for Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Only God Forgives, which was a lot less subtle but a gorgeous watch. If you’ve seen Only God Forgives, you won’t be surprised when I say the movie was beautifully shot.
A Must-See
Calvary has gone relatively unnoticed, it seems, but it’s an absolute must-see. The performances are on-point, particularly that of Brendan Gleeson, who is convincing and soulful. The direction and script are excellent, as is the cinematography. It’s a beautiful piece of art, a movie that makes you think – not just on moral decisions of people in general, but your own, too (I’m sure there’s a character for everyone that they can recognize themselves and their own sins in), as well as what happened to countless innocent children, the value of a good person is, and what happens when such a good person is targeted just because he’s good.
In fact, Calvary so deep and contemplative that I put off writing this review for a while so I could mull over it for a while – the movie is a lot to take in. However, I can’t wait to see it again when the BluRay is released. So far, Calvary has won four awards. It won the “Panorama” award at the Berlin Film Festival (for movies that discuss controversial topics), and it won three Irish Film and Television awards: it won Best Film and Best Screenplay for John Michael McDonagh, and Brendan Gleeson won Best Lead Actor. All very well deserved.
Have you seen Calvary? What did you think?
Do you enjoy movies that discuss controversial, or tough subjects like Calvary does?
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