Now that Phillip Seymour Hoffman has unfortunately left this earth, there are very few actors who stand out to me as being able to match his acting ability. Hoffman had a special knack for making even the most ordinary characters fascinating. The only actors that come to mind that still have that level of skill are Christopher Walken, Paul Giamatti and Brendan Gleeson. There has never been a film that displays Gleeson's great ability to carry an entire film and then some than the dark comedy Calvary. His performance is magnificent and, although there are many other interest characters and ideas in the film, he makes this film as wonderful as it is. If writer-director John Michael McDonagh (who also work with Gleeson in the criminally underrated The Guard,) were to have picked a lesser actor for the lead, the whole project would have most likely gone to shambles.
In the film, Gleeson plays Father James, a nice and caring priest who receives an anonymous death threat in the confessional booth. Once this threat gets out, Father James starts to look at everyone in the town a different way. The head doctor (Aidan Gillen) suddenly becomes a slimy man. The goofy butcher (Chris O'Dowd) becomes someone who seems suspiciously silly. Even that guy who hangs out at the bar all the time (Killan Scott) becomes a crazy drunk. In fact, the only two people Father James can seem to trust are daughter Fiona (Kelly Reilly) and an old man (M. Emmet Walsh, who is always a delight to watch) with a special habit for writing. The film is told as a whodunit but McDonagh was clever enough to not make the film all about that. This is not to say that's not a lot of what grasps the audience. The whole idea of who this potential killer is and why he wants to kill Father James of all people sticks in the audience's mind throughout. Although the potential killer does give an explanation of his motivation in the confessional, the audience still wants to know more and who.
The film's location is beautiful, giving the film a very quaint and voluptuous feel. This is also one of those films I love that's set in its own world. As with Fargo or the overlooked Cedar Rapids, this is set in a town where everyone seems to know everyone. For a mystery such as this one, that is particularly effective because it gives everyone equal suspicion. There are no characters who are hidden in the background and thus anyone could be the potential killer.
As I previously mentioned, Gleeson is wonderful here. He plays Father James as a kind, sympathetic man but also can brilliant pull off the moments in which he has no choice but to put his foot down and be aggressive. The audience feels his pain as everyone starts to quickly turn against him and the audience feels the weight of the threat that he feels. Everyone else from Gillen to O'Dowd to Scott to Reilly are excellent but Gleeson makes this film. He is a truly palpable presence and this is Oscar-worthy stuff. I'm disappointed about the fact that The Academy is probably going to ignore a film as small as this come Oscar season because Gleeson definitely deserves a nomination.
The film becomes increasingly more suspenseful as the reveal gets more and more questionable. There are multiple people attacking Father James in plain sight for seemingly no reason but who did it out of sight? This question is gripping from the first second of the film to the reveal. Calvary has a wonderfully old fashioned feel to it and is damn delightful. Unfortunately, it probably won't find any kind of audience due to its religious subtext, which does admittedly become a bit too much for the last half hour or so. While the film is sometimes unnecessarily poky and the plot starts to take a back seat to the mystery when things become a bit bogged down, this is still definitely worth seeing. Gleeson's unbelievably impressive work alone makes this worth the price of admission.
(4 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for sexual references, language, brief strong violence and some drug use)
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