Movie: Calvary

Calvary: an Irish film about faith.  The movie opens with the local parish priest sitting in the confessional.  An individual enters the confessional.  All we hear is the individual’s voice as he proceeds to tell the priest that he was molested as a child and that the priest who committed the acts is now deceased.  His closing remarks are that he knows he is speaking with a good priest and in one week he will return to meet the priest and kill him.  “I’m going to kill you because you’re innocent.”  The next scenes are of the Irish coastline with individuals surfing.  (I had no idea folks surfed in Ireland.)  For the next seven days and the remainder of this 104 minute film, we follow Father James and explore whether he is “innocent”.  Each passing day is marked on screen, a questionable ploy since there are no flashbacks.  Brendan Gleeson gives a superb performance as Father James and the movie works because Gleeson takes full advantage of the script.  We learn about the daily life of this good priest.  We also learn of his personal history: that he was married and only became ordained after his wife died; we meet his adult daughter, Fiona (Kelly Reilly) and explore their relationship.  We meet various parishioners and learn of the daily issues that arise among them.  And we keep returning to the ocean and a large stone mass but no reappearance of surfers.  The film is shot in the northwest corner of Ireland in  County Sligo.  James Michael McDonagh is the writer and director of this excellent movie.  The supporting cast includes Dylan Moran as Fitzgerald, a wealthy baron without friends, who has theological exchanges with Father James in which questions are raised such as whether tainted money given by a person without values should be accepted by a church.  The conversations in the film are intense, however, the subject is not directly related to religion and presented with a sense of humor.   I did not like the closing scene, but to describe why would answer the mystery presented in the film’s opening scenes.  I would have no objection to McDonagh receiving a nomination for best original screenplay or for director, and none whatsoever to Gleeson receiving a nomination for his performance.