Calvary (2014)

People are voting emotionally.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The synopsis of the film can be summed up with a scene at the end. The murderer has killed the priest's dog by slitting it its throat. The priest is distraught and cries. The murderer at the end has the innocent priest in his gun sights and asks if the priest cried when his dog died. The priest answers, yes. The murderer asks if the priest cried when kids were being raped. No, the priest didnt cry, he was somehow detatched. Bang the first shot goes off to the priest's chest. The murderer is in rage: the priest cried for his dog yet not for the raped kids. Closeup: headshot with brains splattered everywhere. The murderer executes the priest. The christian church worldwide has much to answer for, how sexual assault was condoned, tollerated, protected for years. Yet this continues today. :-(

I found John Michael McDonagh's previous work The Guard (2011) lukewarm and trying to be funny more times than succeeding in my eye, even with some positive critics finding the humour to their liking. His recent War on Everyone (2016) has had rather poor critic and audience appreciation. I thus watched Calvary (2014) with some reservations, although I was hoping to find why there was more praise for Brendan Gleeson acting and McDonagh's writing and directing. It now seems that McDonagh may be much better with unconventional priests than with comic cops!From the unforgettable first line of the crisp script to the last shot of the film showing a single tear, the screenplay is pure genius. It is a dark comedy, a philosophical contemplation on life, pain, loss, forgiveness and frailty. The many characters and potent actors each add their own depth to the devoted priest centrepiece who is trying to help the community, but is also very aware of the reality and the limitations of his rhetoric. I have rarely seen a movie about a religious figure be so morally ambiguous, subdued yet ambitious. IT is not preachy or propose any universal truth, but rather explores humanity as is, raw, flawed and in search for: pleasure, closure, redemption, revenge, reparation, meaning, happiness, communication and communion. Communion as in deeply sharing and beyond the Christian shenanigans of the body of Christ. The priest who sees himself as inherently trying to do "good", and not only God's work, is an endearing character how is as flawed as all the others. He drinks, swears, gets violent on occasion, exhibits greed and has done some harm, somewhat inadvertently, to his suicidal daughter. Yet, he is real and relatable. He questions the moral compass he holds himself up to and tries to be the pillar of his town and community. He sometimes fails, but gets up and tries to do better.He says there is "too much focus on sins and less on virtues". He finds a way to teach his daughter true forgiveness and love. The film is ultimately beautifully filmed, acted, directed and edited and is based on a off-beat, cynical, but surprisingly smart and sensible screenplay that delivers laughs, emotions and life reflections. Bravo Mr. McDonagh. You hit the nail... to the cross.

Just saw this film on BBC iplayer as it had been recommended to me and had a pretty decent set of reviews and score on IMDb. I couldn't have been more led astray. There are different kinds of bad film; the one so bad its funny; the one that's just cheap and boring; the bang bang forget about the plot; the pretentious star vehicle; but this is the worst kind; the insult to the topic and the viewer. There is no way this film could have been good; it simply is a pile of half-digested thoughts thrown together without any feel for context or reference. There is a priest, apparently he is a widower with a daughter(possible but most unlikely) He has long hair and a beard(possible but unlikely) He is a parish priest but there is no community except a bunch of Oirish stereotypes. The local chief cop is an out gay man hanging around with a screaming queen. The priest has been threatened by an abused parishioner, whom he knows but for some reason chooses not to confront or report. He has a daughter who is English and apparently prone to suicide attempts,and who has a cheap wig. His colleague priest is an idiot who seems to have wandered in from a cheap sitcom. Throw in Chris O'Dowd as the local butcher and would be assassin. He can't act but IS funny in a comedy. Likewise Dylan Moran, who is also funny but can't act as a depressed financier. So we have sexual abuse by priests, the failure of the Celtic Tiger and its aftermath, a deep malaise in the country at large, and yet not a single conversation rings true. Everyone just mouths vague platitudes and homespun faux- philosophy. The characterisation is paper-thin and disjointed. Nothing that happens here would ever happen. This film won awards! It is a pile of complete garbage and the makers should be tarred and feathered and dragged down every main street in Ireland.

CALVARY is a disappointing and depressing Irish drama about a Catholic priest in Ireland struggling with life in the present day. He finds himself the subject of a death threat thanks to one of his congregation who was abused by another priest as a child and encounters characters with various hang-ups who seem to delight in taking their problems out on him.I had a feeling that this wouldn't make for much in the way of entertainment and I was right. CALVARY is a gloomy and pointless movie that seems to be destined to assuage Catholic guilt more than anything else. There's no real story here, just the main character interacting with other characters before an inevitable outcome. No shock, no surprise, no involvement, just endless nihilism.The one thing the film has going for it is Brendan Gleeson in the lead role. He's big and warm-hearted and keeps you watching despite his character's deficiencies. The supporting cast is less assured. Kelly Reilly is unconvincing as the supposedly sympathetic daughter character while Chris O'Dowd is out of place and acting rather than living his role. Aiden Gillen is reliably sinister. M. Emmet Walsh has a random cameo. I knew Domhnall Gleeson would show up somewhere and he doesn't have much to offer either. If I want gritty Irish realism I think I'll stick to something like ADAM & PAUL in future.