Review: Calvary

 

Brendan Gleeson stars as a priest in a small Irish community, who has just heard the confession of an unseen man who claims to have been the victim of sexual abuse by a priest long ago. The man now sees it as his mission to carry out revenge by killing a priest. However, killing a bad priest would merely rob the world of a bad priest whom no one will miss. Instead he wants to make more of an impact by killing Gleeson, who has done no real harm to anyone. With apparently only one week to live, we follow Gleeson in his interactions with locals, as well as reconnecting with his recently suicidal daughter Kelly Reilly. Meanwhile, he’s also looking out for whoever might be his maker yet-to-meet. Chris O’Dowd plays a loutish husband and local butcher, Aidan Gillen is an antagonistic, cynical atheist doctor, Dylan Moran is a rich man with seemingly no joy left in his life after his family left him, and M. Emmet Walsh plays a cranky old writer.

 

Not to be confused with the similarly spelled ‘cavalry’, the title of this 2014 film from writer-director John Michael McDonagh actually refers to the hill on which Jesus was crucified. Taken to the context of this film’s story, I guess the priest played by Brendan Gleeson is meant to be the ‘one good’ priest in the somewhat tainted Catholic Church of late. It is the second film from McDonagh, whose debut was the interesting and amusing “The Guard”. This one’s a little more serious and perhaps not quite as strong, but is still an interesting effort. The McDonagh’s are clearly a talented family, with brother Martin made the terrific “In Bruges” and the underrated “Seven Psychopaths”.

 

We start off in startling manner as a confession involving some unsavoury details and a death threat against Brendan Gleeson’s priest character are delivered by an unseen voice. Gleeson, as is often the case is absolutely awesome here, it’s his broad shoulders the film is carried upon (His character obviously carries a lot of non-physical weight around too, being in such an important position in the community). There’s really not much plot to speak of, just Gleeson (as a rather pragmatic and sensible priest who knows the horrible sins his church- or persons involved with it- has committed) interacting with several eccentric characters, with the spectre of impending death lurking in the background as something of a subplot, more than the main plot. In a way, it’s like “I Confess”, except Irish and the murder hasn’t been committed yet. It’s not terribly difficult to work out who the wannabe murderer is, I worked it out from the person in question’s first moment (Perhaps Gleeson’s character knows right away, too). However, the journey makes up for the predictability of the destination, I think.

 

McDonagh deserves credit for tackling some really serious, weighty stuff here whilst trying to also have a bit of a laugh. A very, very bleak laugh. Chris O’Dowd, somewhat cast against type as a lout, is very sleazy, but very funny. Meanwhile, there’s a very funny conversation between Gleeson and a troubled young man who either wants to kill himself…or join the army. Comedian Dylan Moran is hilarious as a lonely rich man and overall giant wanker, reminding me a bit of the late Dudley Moore. It’s always great to see veteran American character actor M. Emmet Walsh on screen as one of the locals, even if he doesn’t attempt to hide his accent. I guess McDonagh just really wanted to work with the guy and didn’t bother to instruct him to use an Irish brogue. Still, he’s terrific company. Although his hedonistic atheist cynic character is a little bit of a cheap shot at non-believers, Aiden Gillen (the best thing on “Game of Thrones”) is rock-solid too as a cynic who seems to be purposely trying to provoke Gleeson with grim stories. Why does Gillen always look like the cat that swallowed the canary? I swear, he’s hiding something sinister, folks. Or maybe he really is a cat and he really has swallowed a fucking canary. I’m onto you, Littlefinger! Look out for a startling scene between Gleeson and his own son Domhnall (the only scene the latter has in the entire film) as a creepy young murderer named Freddie.

 

The film’s rather scant plot and relaxed attitude to plot progression/pacing won’t be to everyone’s liking, but this is another solid effort from the team of writer/director McDonagh and lead actor Gleeson. Well-acted across the board by an interesting cast (especially Gleeson and Moran), but perhaps it’s a film with more interesting parts than adding up to a completely successful whole. It certainly can’t be accused of being boring with this cast, though. Lovely Irish scenery, too, though I bet it’s a shit boring place to live unless you’re a drinker or fond of site-seeing (Sorry, Irish people, it’s not your country, it’s me).

 

Rating: B-