Dearest Blog, over the long holiday weekend, I finally, FINALLY got to see a movie to which I've been looking forward for nearly all of 2014: Calvary.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing that isn't divulged by the trailers.
After being threatened in the confessional, a priest in a small Irish town has a week to decide how to address the situation.
Well, dear reader(s), what can I say except Calvary proved more than worth the wait. The whole Internet has not the capacity to hold all the good things I have to say about this movie, so I'll try to hit the high points and keep this short...or...you know...short for me.
Calvary is headlined by Brendan Gleeson, and, if you think you've seen the performance of the year from Eddie Redmayne or Jake Gyllenhaal or Michael Keaton, well, roll all those up into one and you might get halfway to Gleeson's work in Calvary.
He is magnificent as a good man caught in an unspeakably bad situation, and his interactions with his parishioners swing from hilarious to heartbreaking without missing a beat. Solid turns by Chris O'Dowd, Dylan Moran, Aidan Gillen, David Wilmot, and especially Kelly Reilly round out a cast that never hits a sour note.
Peacefully beautiful Irish locations seem at odds with shocking actions and words. The film's grim mood is broken by laugh-out-loud moments; it's serious as a heart attack, but never miserable. The movie manages to show faith as a good thing, without ever being preachy, and acknowledges horrors perpetrated by Catholic clergy while always maintaining THIS priest as a good and strong, if complicated, man.
Though it's hardly action packed, there is not a single dull moment as Calvary keeps its secret right up to an unsettling and strangely hopeful ending.
Calvary clocks in at 102 minutes and is rated R for "sexual references, language, brief strong violence, and some drug use."
Though it never earned a wide-release in the US, Calvary is now available on BluRay, digital download, and VOD.
DO NOT MISS IT.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Calvary gets all nine and wants Arthur and Molly to have a few more kids.
Until next time
What they said.
