Calvary

Director: Marc Webb

Writer: John Michael McDonaugh

Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O’Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen

Runtime: 100 minutes

Certification: 15

Rating: 4⁄5

Following on from their previous effort The Guard, director John Michael McDonagh (brother of Marty) have teamed up again for Calvary, the tale of a well-meaning, innocent priest told in the confessional that he has only a week left to live. Where Marty managed to make an instant classic in In Bruges (also starring Gleeson, interestingly enough), before following it up with Seven Psychopaths, an enjoyably Tarantino-esque romp that was perhaps too smart for its own good, John appears to have trodden the inverse path. Where The Guard was pretty damn good, _Calvary _is downright incredible.

It shares the very (very, very, very, very) dark sense of humour of The Guard, albeit now mixed in with a strong sense of melancholy and emotion, as Gleeson’s Father James attempts to come to terms with his impending death. There’s a whole net of supporting characters, all with their own quirks, all deftly sketched out by McDonagh, with a ‘who’ll-do-it’ air (a who-dunnit would be a total misnomer, what with them not having done it yet) hanging over it all. Kelly Reilly is heart-wrenching as Father James’ self-harming daughter, while Aiden Gillen (Littlefinger from _Game of Thrones, _for the few of you who might watch that small show)’s atheist doctor has quite possibly the most unnerving anecdote you’ll hear in a film. It’s shiver-inducing even recalling it. The rest of the cast are impeccable, from Dylan Moran to Chris O’Dowd (nice to see him in something a little bit smaller than his new-found Hollywood fame), but really the entire gig hinges on Gleeson, and he pulls it off. He more than pulls it off, to be honest. It’s an utterly compelling performance that deserves far more recognition that it will likely get.

If I’m totally honest, that’s pretty much all there is to Calvary. It’s very much the story of Father James, and everything revolves around his impending murder – or at least, how we view it does. The inhabitants of his village all live their own lives, with a whole casket load of problems apiece, but it is through the lens of Father James, so desperately trying to be a good man, to support them all only to find a vicious backlash against the institution he represents, that we encounter them.

To diminish Calvary to just that in the praise stakes would be unfair, and it should here be said that it is quite possibly the most heart-wrenching, deeply personal and painfully involving film to come out so far this year. The visuals are stark, making use of the Irish landscape, and the music sombre. The whole thing is never less than gripping, and its final moments will leave you in a state of shock. I daren’t say any more for fear of spoiling it, and I’m not sure I can add anything else anyway. _Calvary _demands to be experienced. The raw, tumultuous emotion it contains demands to be felt.