Calvary

Calvary is also just jaw-droppingly beautiful. McDonagh and cinematographer Larry Smith capture the four-seasons-in-one-day miracle that is Ireland, with its jagged stonescapes, roiling surf, fairie towns, and bracing skies.

Grounded by a performance of monumental soul from Gleeson as a tough-minded Irish priest marked for death by one of his parishioners, the film offers a mordantly funny survey of small-town iniquity that morphs, almost imperceptibly, into a deeply felt lament for a fallen world.

Calvary is a compact and biting tale of a righteous man being tested by his faith, his peers and his predicament.

With Calvary, John Michael McDonagh (who wrote and directed "The Guard" and is the brother of Martin “In Bruges” McDonagh) has crafted a darkly hilarious and deeply ruminative update on the passion play.

Downbeat, depressing and heavy as lead, Calvary is nevertheless an unusual film that never bores. Impeccable performances by Chris O’Dowd, Aiden Gillen, M. Emmett Walsh and Kelly Reilly are riveting. And Mr. Gleeson is a bear-like centerpiece of conflicts and contradictions who anchors the floating pieces of the Irish puzzle in faith and doctrine, while mercifully refusing to sermonize.

Calvary is most assuredly not a comedy. It is a weighty, powerful drama -- albeit one with comic moments -- that dabbles in weighty, powerful themes.

Those shots are in contrast to those landscapes, which are craggy, primordial. It’s meant to be a haunting combination, and I have colleagues who’ve found it just that, who came out of the movie ashen, devastated. But I found it bludgeoning — I think it gives new meaning to the phrase hammer of God.

This was extremely well done. The visuals, the script, the music, the pace and the acting were all top notch. I would not say it was hilarious, but it had me chuckle at the witty lines throughout. My enjoyment of it came primarily just because it was such a high quality product, with several parallel ideas working well together. Very polished yet relaxed and not forced somehow. The audience is not forced to strain to understand obscure references or tortured with overly complex plot lines, but the ideas were deep and could elicit great conversation afterwards in any group of watchers. Even though it uses what you might think of as hackneyed vehicles such as the "good priest" and the "bitter atheist" to convey its ideas, it does so incredibly deftly and I was left just admiring the result. Surely better than the incredibly over-rated Boyhood, which I also enjoyed but which was not nearly as well done as this. I want to give this a 9 but I would say 9.5 because even while it had a few shortfall moments that had me feeling disappointed, they were rescued immediately by the pacing and the next good idea in the script.

Calvary – In Search of Innocence Lost British born writer/director John Michael McDonagh appears to be following the footsteps of Ingmar Bergman and the writings of the Greek classical age - with in-depth studies of the hopelessness and failings of the human condition to conquer its own weaknesses. If this is supposed to be black comedy then it’s the ‘comedy’ of chaos – offering very little, if anything, to feel humored about. Mostly, the audience is basically being manipulated to think and feel in a particular manner - through the actions of an endless parade of largely jaded, social misfits – many of who tend to come across as more willingly despicable, than deserving of much sympathy. Performances are uniformly good with Gleeson a standout as the local Catholic priest, offering genuine comfort to largely unreceptive parishioners. Location shooting is a highlight as is the varied music score and selected songs. But the downbeat ending casts an un-redeeming gloom on the overall proceedings. This is Greek tragedy Irish style, for those who can stay with the often sordid, heavy mood swings. The Dog is a nice touch but again, tends to serve simply as a device to elevate the tragedy into an audience’s memory. Very good looking with many interesting angles but offering little comfort, if not somewhat soul destroying.

English Writer/Director John Michael McDonagh is the elder brother of filmmaker Martin McDonagh, the mastermind who is behind such sterling black comedies as IN BRUGES (2008, 8/10) and SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS (2012). CALVARY is John Michael’s second feature, after the well-received THE GUARD (2011), stars McDonagh brothers’ regular Gleeson as Father James, an Irish priest in soutane, who is warned in the opening confession by an unnamed man, that he has only one week to live, because he will kill him the next Sunday for being a good priest, to the effect of shock value, as a vengeance towards his own sexually abused childhood perpetrated by a priest. keep reading my review on my blog, please google: cinema omnivore, thanks in advance!

I failed to see what's so good about this film. I didn't even finish. total failure, but I look forward to seeing Brendan Gleeson in other movies he is an excellent actor.

Despite a capable lead performance and beautiful location shots, this has got to be one of the worst new movies I have seen in a very, very long time. Besides its wholly predictable premise (which is easy to figure out even without spoilers), the picture features a cast of largely reprehensible characters (most of them depicted as grossly overwritten caricatures) spouting some of the most ridiculous dialogue I've ever heard come out of actors' mouths. In the spirit of charity, though, all I can say is forgive the filmmakers, for they clearly know not what they do.