Calvary (2014)

I don't recall learning about this one before. Maybe Netflix recommended it based on my interest in vaguely similar rentals. Maybe I wanted another Catholic priest story, even if they're as hit-or-miss as anything. I doubt it was a desire to learn about director John Michael McDonagh.

In a small Irish town, Father James (Brendan Gleeson) hears an unseen man in a confessional booth promise to kill him, albeit with the courtesy of a week to set his affairs in order. With no seal of confession on a threat, James tells the bishop (David McSavage) but not the police. Nor does he flee. Indeed, for the next week, he barely says a word about it, instead dealing with various locals' troubles.

Anyone who gives an intended murder victim a week's head start is bound to be mentally unsound. I'm not surprised to learn that the threatener is a pedophile priest survivor, but no past experience of his makes it easy for me to understand why he would deliberately choose a target he makes out to be innocent. His stated rationale is that it'll shock the Church more than killing a rapist (his own now dead by other means). That may be, but it sure won't make the Church better. Another priest suggests that the man would rather be widely despised than disregarded. Me, I think he doesn't really believe his own claim that James is innocent. When they finally meet again, the dialog certainly points to the guilt of aloofness from Church scandals. Maybe the true point is that villains will be villains, but alleged good guys who don't treat the issue seriously enough have no excuse.

Not that I relate much better to James. While the "mystery" tag may apply for the viewers, he knows right away who the threatener is. (There's actually a different actor in the confessional to avoid a dead giveaway, similar to a practice in the making of Psycho.) It's one thing to withhold your persecutor's identity from everyone out of selflessness when you're the only one threatened, but by the time he's a person of interest in an attack on your house of worship, you're not serving the greater good. James considers it a sin to join the military, yet he's not too pacifistic to buy a handgun from a criminal and lie about his reason. Seems to me he needs to sort out his priorities.

Nevertheless, he might just be the most virtuous character we meet. Most locals openly disrespect his religion, often rubbing their considerable sins in his face. (The R rating is mainly for drugs, sex talk, and copious swearing.) I suppose that's done partly to give us plenty of suspects, though we could rule out most based on their voices. No, it's more about how the community is increasingly lapsed, and James can do only so much to slow the process.

One unusual thing about James is that he's a widowed father who joined the priesthood in grief. His now adult daughter (Kelly Reilly) resents that this reduced his presence in her life. Of all the side arcs, this one seems most important.

No matter how you feel about Catholic priests, it's a pretty bleak tale, so I'm reluctant to recommend Calvary in general. But I haven't given up on McDonagh. He does dabble in comedy.