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Calvary (15)

Calvary (15)

Comedy, Drama

After he is threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.


The critical consensus

Calvary is a reasonably good analysis of Irish Catholicism's role in the age of atheism, but it's much more valuable for its depiction of a good man attempting to live and die by his own set of morals.

****(*)Niki Boyle, The List, 27/02/2014

Anchored by a truly sensational performance from Gleeson, this unexpected blend of passion play, detective story, rural comedy and serious inquiry into faith is destined for classic status.

*****Andrew Lowry, Total Film, 31/03/2014

On the strength of only two films, McDonagh and Gleeson are a director/star team on a par with Ford/Wayne, Fellini/Mastroianni or Scorsese/De Niro. Calvary is gripping, moving, funny and troubling, down to an uncompromising yet uncynical finish.

*****Kim Newman, Empire Online, 06/04/2014

What follows is an uncompelling comic whodunit (or whowilldoit) with delusions of existential grandeur.

**(*)(*)(*)Jamie Dunn, The Skinny, 07/04/2014

A knock-out. Works like gangbusters on every level.

David Jenkins, Little White Lies, 11/04/2014

The film does have a remarkable central figure in Father James. Gleeson plays him with such wry, tender and soul-shattering compassion he ends up making the film impossible to dismiss.

***(*)(*)Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 12/04/2014

I found it slow, dispiriting and not entirely convincing.

***(*)(*)Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express, 11/04/2014

A rich and rare treat for grown-up cinemagoers.

*****Allan Hunter, Daily Express, 11/04/2014

I found myself carried along by this film. There is an exhilaration in its alienation and anger.

****(*)Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 10/04/2014

Brendan Gleeson surpasses himself as a priest threatened with crucifixion in John Michael McDonagh's follow-up to The Guard.

****(*)Xan Brooks, The Observer, 13/04/2014

The wonder of Calvary is that amid all the blarney and black humour, it stands up as a moving and sincere drama about religious faith and the fear of death.

Geoffrey MacNab, The Independent, 10/04/2014

Apart from a slight self-conscious tendency to comment upon itself, McDonagh's script is a fabulous bit of writing with the tidy structure and mythical resonance of a passion play, but idiosyncratic and funny in all of its detail.

****(*)Laurence Phelan, The Independent, 10/04/2014

This is an honourable attempt to pull together a meditation on Ireland and its religious disillusion, and part of a planned trilogy for Gleeson and McDonagh. You just hope that by the next film McDonagh will bury his themes a little deeper so his film doesn’t keep tripping on them.

***(*)(*)Siobhan Synnot, The Scotsman, 13/04/2014


Features about Calvary (15)

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

Cameo, Edinburgh from Friday May 23, 2014, until Thursday June 5, 2014. More info: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/

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