Calvary (2014)
Faith and forgiveness
Grade: A
Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh
Starring Brendan Gleeson, Kelly Riley and Chris O’Dowd
“I think that forgiveness has been highly underrated.”
- Fr. James Lavelle, Calvary
Bookended by two remarkable confessions – the first cloaked, the other transparent – Calvary parades a swath of human suffering almost too overwhelming to bear. The loss of childhood innocence at the hands of a pedophile priest, a beloved husband killed by a drunk driver and a child’s near self-destruction force us to choose between virtue and vice. The biblical account of the Calvary story relates the testing, trial and torture of God made man. Similarly, Fr. James, brilliantly underplayed by Brendan Gleeson, endures repeated testing, trials and ultimately torture by members of his own congregation. While far less god and much more man (reminding us of Kazantzakis’ Christ), Fr. James openly wrestles with his faith and leaves a legacy of hope for those who choose the path of forgiveness.
To be sure, Calvary’s opening confessional disclosure is shocking: “I’m going to kill you Father.” But don’t be misled. The film is not a conventional thriller or mystery. Fr. James’ nearly nonchalant response to this threat guides us away from these conventions. Cloaked in the Catholic Church of Ireland, following the revelation of the pedophile priest scandal, Calvary plumbs broad themes and issues well beyond borders, pews and pedophiles. Suffering is an equal opportunity human experience and there is plenty on display in Calvary. What we do with our suffering is the question posed by this film.
Fr. James is given exactly one week to get his affairs in order before he must meet his assailant. While we cannot be certain which of his parishioners has made the murderous threat, Fr. James likely knows his penitent. Over the course of a week he goes about his business, visiting parishioners, spending time with his adult daughter (Fr. James entered the priesthood following the death of his wife), and acquiring a gun. He also visits the local bishop, who, after probing the details of the murderous threat made in the confessional, adopts a cool and detached attitude about the matter, leaving Fr. James to fend for himself. The question raised at this point in the film, and elsewhere more indirectly, is the role of contrition in forgiveness. While the church won’t grant the Lord’s absolution to the non-contrite, should we forgive our offenders even if they lack contrition? The film suggests we ought to, if only to be free of the shackles of our bitter anger and resentments and the self-destruction that ensues.
Calvary is set on the west coast of Ireland, in Sligo, offering welcomed views of the rural coast and nearby hills between charged and painful human dramas in claustrophobic pubs, the confessional, a meat locker, a prison, and the princely quarters of Bishop Montgomery. Fr. James’ private quarters, with the play of white light and spare simplicity, offer an interior refuge from the unrelenting suffering. The distant grass and moss covered mesa in Sligo comes into view a number of times throughout the film, reminding us of Fr. James’ appointment with his own Calvary. Along the way, Fr. James receives spiritual sustenance from Teresa, played by Marie Josee Croze, and passes that along to his daughter, Fiona, played by Kelly Reilly.
Elizabeth Toulan, a guest host on It’s Movie Time, is senior attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services.