Calvary
Director: John Michael McDonagh
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 0.5
An Irish priest (Brendan Gleeson) is told in the confessional that he's going to be shot the following Sunday by a malcontent seeking revenge for past abuse by another priest - instead of going to the police, the priest decides to spend the week visiting with his parishioners and waiting for death. Echoes of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah loom over this eclectic, irritating movie: almost all of the people of the church are loons (except for Marie-Josée Croze's widow) and their whole goal is to act bizarre and cruel to rattle and upset Gleeson: they kill his dog, they burn down his church, they verbally taunt him, they behave outrageously (a wealthy man urinates on a painting in front of him), they insult his (suicidal) daughter ... while he keeps taking the abuse. Many extraordinary films have been made about a person's crisis of faith, but this one succumbs to nihilism - it is a sour and unrewarding experience.
