Calvary

Don't we all need saving from something? Scott Weiland needs to be saved from heroin. Kurt Cobain needed saving from Courtney Love. My buddy needed saving from these two rather large women who wanted to take him home from the Skanktank (Coppertank) Brewery one night; but of course he got no help from us. I even have a music nerd friend who needs saving from herself as she is a closet One Direction fan. Yes! You read that correctly, no she's not 16, and yes she realizes that Harry is gay but she doesn't care! So when I saw the title of John Michael McDonagh's latest film, I thought that maybe he was supplying the answer for them all!

But once the movie started, I realized that there was no such Messiah in this movie. The story of Father James parallels that of Jesus in that everyone knows he's a really good person/being and that he wants nothing but the best for them and their lives with his message but they continue to reject him and mock him because it seems easier to just continue living the way they do, even though they know it's not good for them. But that's where the comparisons end because Father James is only human and he doesn't have the answers to everything but he tries his best while he happens to be dealing with a few issues himself.

You see that right from the start when he's in the confessional and a man confesses something to him that's pretty startling but sadly all too common these days. However instead of looking for help, this man is looking for revenge as that's the only thing that seems right to him. So he threatens to return in a week to kill Father James in the hopes that this will finally cause people to pay attention to him and his pain.

Now I know that all of this seems pretty heavy so far but there is actually quite a bit of dark humor in this movie. As McDonagh takes you through each day that leads up to the potentially fatal Sunday, you are introduced to a number of oddball characters in this small Irish town. As I mentioned earlier, they each have their own issues and they choose to deal with them in their own quirky ways. For example, the man that seems ok with the fact that his wife is cheating on him with his chess partner because it means that he can come in at night whenever he wants. Or the odd duck who is so frustrated with the fact that he can't ever get laid that he's considering joining the army because that way he can legally get away with killing people as a coping mechanism. Now I'm no comedian and I'm a terrible writer but McDonagh has a way of making you laugh at these situations while still maintaining a rather dark tone to the film.

And that's the thing, the entire time you feel this dark cloud forming over James as people start acting more aggressively toward him with their mocking and their unusual behavior. He's starting to feel less and less safe as Sunday approaches but somehow he never loses his faith. And the entire time he knows who is coming to kill him but you don't; so you are looking at everyone sideways as you're trying to guess who the true nut job is.

The only good thing that seems to be happening to him this week is that he and his daughter, who just recently attempted suicide, seem to have reconciled whatever was separating them in the past; providing at least one bright spot in an otherwise dark week. All of this leads up to a rather jaw dropping final scene which will stick with you for a while.

When I went into this movie, I didn't even plan on reviewing it but I was so impressed with how it turned out that I couldn't help but join in on the praise bandwagon. I give this movie a rating of really FRESH!