Review: Calvary

"I first tasted semen when I was seven years old," a man on the other side of the darkened confessional booth reveals to Father James (Brendan Gleeson). Repeatedly raped by a now-deceased priest for five years, the victim shares his plan for retribution with his confessor: there's no point in killing a bad priest, so he's going to kill a good one, namely Father James who now has one week to put his house in order and make his peace with God before meeting his fate on the beach.

Set in the aftermath of Ireland's sex abuse scandal, Calvary follows Father James as he goes about the coastal village of County Sligo, tending to his flock of sheep. The flock are a restless one, most coated in cynicism and indifference, all seemingly hellbent on challenging his convictions with courteous contempt. Among the parishioners are the local butcher (Chris O'Dowd), his adulterous wife (Orla O'Rourke), her lover (Isaach De Bankolé), a particularly self-satisfied financier (Dylan Moran), and a reluctantly celibate young man (Killian Scott). Most seem likely candidates to be his prospective murderer as does the atheistic doctor (Aiden Gillen), who goads him with a story of a child accidentally rendered deaf, dumb, blind, and paralysed by an operation - surely that's how the sexually abused victims must have felt at the hands of their priests?

Calvary is less about the whodunit - audiences with sharp ears may already suss out the killer - than the question of keeping the faith in an institution that has lost its moral compass. Each of Father James's encounters serves as a reminder that he is part of an institution that is becoming more and more obsolete. Believers wonder why they need to be penitent for their sins when the church covers up the transgressions of their priests. Priests are sullied figures in these parts: Father James has a friendly chat with a young girl only to have her father snatch her away as to be a priest is now equated with paedophilia.

Yet John Michael McDonagh's follow-up to The Guard is not a didactic condemnation of the Catholic Church. McDonagh crafts an emotionally complex meditation on the nature of faith and forgiveness. Father James understands everyone's grievances even as he contemplates whether they are worth his daily fidelity or even his life as symbolic reparation for sins committed by others in the priesthood. These are weighty themes but balanced with mordant humour and genuinely intriguing provocations.

Gleeson delivers a tour-de-force performance as the intelligent and philosophical Father James. Here is a man of the cloth who understands the struggles of others because he knows his own faults. He was a widower who arrived late to his vocation struggled with alcoholism, and left his unhappy daughter (Kelly Reilly) feeling untethered. He's aware that people stray - he's more concerned with finding out who gave the unfaithful wife the black eye - and that potentially dangerous impulses can be sublimated in other ways. Gleeson segues skillfully from tenderness to resignation; Father James inevitably crumbles from the relentless assault on his beliefs and the defeat feels cataclysmic and heartbreaking.

Calvary's under-the-radar presence may likely cause it to be overlooked come awards time, but make no mistake: Calvary is great and rewarding, a must-see featuring a career-high performance from Gleeson.

Calvary

Directed by: John Michael McDonagh

Written by: John Michael McDonagh

Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aiden Gillen, Dylan Moran, Orla O'Rourke, Isaach De Bankolé, M. Emmet Walsh, David Wilmot, Killian Scott, Marie-Josée Croze, Domhnall Gleeson