Calvary (John McDonagh, director of The Guard)

ShagNastii

I saw this a few weeks back. Thought it (much like the guard) wholly self-indulgence with total caricatures of people scattered throughout. Far too hammy and far to far fetched.

I hate nit picking plot holes but for a community where everyone was so vehemently against the church and it's priest, why were they all at mass at the start and throughout the film?

Insect Overlord

ShagNastii wrote: »

I hate nit picking plot holes but for a community where everyone was so vehemently against the church and it's priest, why were they all at mass at the start and throughout the film?

The two who were most "against the church" (Gillen and Shortt) weren't at mass.

Timfy

Spoilt only slightly for me that I couldn't look at Brendan Gleeson without thinking of Si (Simon) King from the hairy bikers!

Grudaire

I saw it a few days ago and have to say that I really enjoyed it. It's not without weakness, but having read this full thread I get the feeling that some people are expecting a flawless standard, It doesn't deliver this, but I think it has enough merits of its own to justify watching.

ShagNastii wrote: »

I hate nit picking plot holes but for a community where everyone was so vehemently against the church and it's priest, why were they all at mass at the start and throughout the film?

I think that is a bit of a long running theme in Irish life that people go to church regardless of beliefs...

Given that the film is somewhat an exaggerated commentary of the relationship with the Church I actually felt the scene made a lot of sense..:)

AerynSun

DermotMurphy1 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me the title of the song that's played as Brendan Gleeson's character is driving towards the airport near the end of the film? Thanks.

I believe it's Roger Whittaker: New World in the Morning.

Great song, and it does suit the scene really well

LuckyLloyd

I'll start with the positives first:

- Gleeson is magnificent and his character is well drawn and complex;
- Some very strong supporting performances;
- Dialogue is brilliant at times and there is a caustic humour that pervades throughout;
- The film is startingly ambitious in terms of the number of themes it tries to take on, there is so much to chew over here*;
- Some of the self referential lines (characters discussing the scope of their respective roles, etc) is sharp and knowing;
- The ending is memorable and serves as a powerful payoff;

but the negatives are significant:

- It doesn't flow very well. Scene, cut. Scene, cut. The central plot doesn't provide a natural driver for the action so there is a slightly jarring feel as we get catapulted from one disparate conversation to the next. That may be intentional, i.e. we are all only waiting to die experiencing relationships fundamentally beyond our control, but you would have to be extremely charitable to reach that conclusion;
- Some scenes are nailed and some seem 'off'. The film IS uneven in that respect and sometimes seems to be deliberately playing one subject for jokes when another is being played straight up. Again, may be intentional but I doubt it;
- Some issues are thrown in, almost with an attitude of 'prostitution, I'll toss that into the mix sure!!'. You don't HAVE to resolve themes or take a strong stance on them but there is so much thrown in here half boiled that it becomes a weakness rather than a strength by the end;


Overall this is well worth a look with the understanding that it is very heavy going at times. Gleeson's performance is worthy of accolades. I'd be very confident there will be oscar nominated performances next February that don't hold a candle to its depth and ferocity.

The Princess Bride

I saw this last night,having read no reviews,seen no trailers and not read this thread.
I thought it was a good film,Gleeson was flawless and I couldn't have imagined anyone acting that part as well.In fact, it was like he flowed effortlessly through the entire film.

With the exception of Gillen whose-seemingly overacted- character irritated me,any of the others wouldn't have been out of place in my village,likewise with the storyline.

I couldn't get it out of my head for ages afterwards,felt quite sad actually.
To anyone expecting a good laugh,you'll be disappointed.
I have a feeling quite a lot of people just won't get this.
The deeper,hidden undertones throughout left me pondering perhaps more than I should?

Regardless -a good film,unexpectedly good performances from some rather mediocre actors and Gleeson just brilliant.

p to the e

I think children actors are usually given a bit of leeway when looking for acting standards but the young lad in this bugged the hell out of me. Some jokes and verbose dialogue seemed shoe horned in and certain characters seemed uncomfortable with the over the top character traits they were given.

Domhnaill Gleeson, for one, seemed a little off put by playing Ireland's version of Ted Bundy and the recovering alcoholic angle of his father had a bit a bit of a roll the eyes moment about it. I've no idea what M. Emmet Walsh's character was doing there but it was nice to see that he's still alive.

Overall I thought the film came off as pretty pretentious. However I enjoyed both Chris O' Dowd's and Dylan Moran's performance. They were trying for something other than the comedic roles we're used to seeing them in and they grabbed it by the horns. Brendan Gleeson's performance is not flawless but he's definitely the best thing about the film, which is good as he's in pretty much every scene. One thing though,

can someone tell me who killed the dog

?

e_e

p to the e wrote: »

One thing though,

can someone tell me who killed the dog

?

Does it matter? If anything the question should be "why" rather than "who".

Addle

e_e wrote: »

Does it matter? If anything the question should be "why" rather than "who".

But we know why?

e_e

Exactly, it's an unnecessary scene imo as well as a poor cliché.

Warper

Saw this yesterday and enjoyed it. There are a couple of really funny moments, love the Italian guy. Granted a lot of the characters are just caricatures of people. Really the only non-caricature is Gleeson. There are some really stupid characters in this that add nothing to the film like Milo, come out of it, seems like braindead Tommy got on the wrong set.

That said though this is enjoyable and has just the right running time. It clips along at a nice pace and there is some interesting stuff going on. Wasnt really sure of the final scene though

Telecaster58

DermotMurphy1 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me the title of the song that's played as Brendan Gleeson's character is driving towards the airport near the end of the film? Thanks.

Does this not rank as a spoiler?

Fysh

Telecaster58 wrote: »

Does this not rank as a spoiler?

Nope - it doesn't give away anything relevant to how the ending plays out.

RichyX

I thought it was a huge disappointment with a great central performance.
As many people have pointed out the supporting characters are little more than caricatures and the performance of the altar boy was horrendous. The daughter's storyline was cringe worthy too.
The dialogue often felt like it was written for the stage but they decided to turn it into a film without making the necessary changes.
It was also horribly shot, flat and ugly framing and some jarring lighting changes when it jumped in for closeups.

One of the weaker Irish films I've seen this year. Run and Jump, Trampoline and The Stag were all much more complete films for me.

candy-gal1

Depressing downer crap, ending was a tad WTF no hopeful and not in a good way!

I wasnt expecting The Guard or anything like that since hearing reviews and comments from people before I swa it, but was expecting better than that!!
Especially since imho the cast was brilliant for a movie like that, was looking forward to something great from Chris ODowd too, that didnt happen!

Addle

candy-gal1 wrote: »

Depressing downer crap, ending was a tad WTF no hopeful and not in a good way!

Well it is part of the 'glorified suicide trilogy'.

metroburgers

Mediocre, underwhelmed film, some good parts, many bad, pointless parts. The flowing footage of Sligo caost and Benbulbin is breathtaking. For me the film was half-baked, so many pointless characters, dialogue scenes, accents, already mentioned here on thread.

Here's a question, Gleeson is about to board plane out of Dodge, looks at the two airport lads beside the coffin, one of the lads leaning on the coffin, Gleeson has a longer look at the other's face and then decides to go back and seal his fate.

Anyone care to explain the myriads of depth to this scene....

And wtf about the alter boy artist with the most ridiculous changing accent ever...???

Gillen was a doing a groundbreaking "taking the piss out of himself not being able to Irish accent even though he's Irish" accent. What a ridiculous role...

A group of transition year students would have written a better plot/dialogue.

TheIrishGrover

I really liked Brendan Gleeson and Chris O'Dowd's performances but, yeah, the rest of the characters were very one-dimensional and the whole message of the movie.... Well, it wasn't very subtle. I wanted to like it much more than I actually did. Part of that reason may have been because there was a woman in front of me exclaiming and whooping with laughter at every tiny little shocking or even slightly funny thing. Not talking (I have no problem telling people to shut up in the cinema) but just being generally a very annoying person to watch a film with.
Didn't think it was a bad film but didn't think it was brilliant either. Pity. It was good to see so many people in the cinema to see it though. I saw it thursday night and it was half full. Pretty good concidering it had been out for a couple of weeks.

Caprica

For me this didn't live up to they hype, I still enjoyed it but I found it very uneven and far from a classic.

Brendan Gleeson was great in the lead role, another masterful performance. I liked the ending, the scene on the beach and the final scence were very powerfull. I enjoyed Gleesons interaction with the Italian lady. I found some of the performances very off puting especially Dylan Moran, Aiden Gillen and the prostitute. It looked like they went an OTT acting school, I found them hard to watch.

In the bar scence when Gleeson was drunk I didn't understand the behaviour of Pat Shorts and the Immigrants character, why were they so ignorant towards him?

The big winner for me was the Sligo scenery, the aerial view over Ben Bulben to the beach was spectacular.

Say Your Number

Saw this last night and thought it was good, the ending was stunning :

the scene where he's talking to that young girl on the road and her father looking at him like he was dirt was an accurate portrayal of how some people tar all priests with the same brush

also:

Didn't see the point of the lad going around talking in the fake American accent

Isaach de Bankolé is 56 :eek:

GBXI

leggo wrote: »

Saw this today and wrote up a review:

There's a line in this movie where Brendan Gleeson says, "That's a line that sounds like it's clever, but makes no sense when you think about it." Unfortunately that also describes this entire film.

It's like they had an idea, got a fantastic ensemble cast together (pretty much every notable Irish actor makes an appearance), then realised they didn't know what they wanted the movie to be about. It's all very full-of-itself and cocksure, begging the media to like them by showing the Times and Sindo in clear view, then begging the audience too by having Gleeson berate a property developer for ruining the country. It can't pick its battles and decide what it's actually railing against though, like listening to an emigrant patronise the Irish from abroad offering solutions on how to 'fix the country' while pretending their own life is perfect.

The problem is that if you can't decide if the enemy is the bankers, the property developers, people's sense of victimisation, the church or people's apathy towards faith, you don't have a movie. And loads of empty symbolism won't help you if there's no ultimate point to it all. Saying "we just put it out there, make up your own mind: that's art, man," is a cop out. Not exploring topics deeply enough for people to get a balanced view of it is lazy and fence-sitting.

The actors take the piss, Aidan Gillen in particular is having a laugh with his accent, full sure that they have a winning script freeing them to focus on their 'range'. Even stellar turns from the dependable Brendan Gleeson and Chris O'Dowd can't help the fact that they've nothing really to work with.

I wanted to like this movie. So did the audience I watched it in the cinema with, who politely and patiently laughed to the weak jokes that opened the movie. But that patience waned as the film's over-weighty script wore everyone down, and further 'jokes' barely got a cough. Very disappointing. The only people who'll like this are Ray Darcy listeners, people trying to look intelligent and British people who still feel guilty about that 700 years business.

Only saw this movie last night and have just read the 1st few pages of the this thread, but my God is the above one the worst attempts at a review I've ever come across. I'm not saying whether I thought Calvary was good or not but that review and particularly the bit in bold show how there can be some serious gob****es on the internet.

NyOmnishambles

I saw this a couple of weeks back

I really enjoyed it, well as much as you can enjoy something that is as unrelently bleak as this movie is

The Sligo scenary is just beautiful and wild and fits in with the tone of the movie but as seems to be the way with current Irish movies this film feels very uneven, it doesn't move too well from the comedy to the seriousness but at the same time I do think that this reflects Irishness in general, we prefer to try and make a joke out of things rather than deal with them head on

Brendan Gleeson was excellent and Chris O Dowd was better than I expected

I also agree with an earlier poster and it is something I remarked on after seeing the movie that there is a feeling of purgatory about the movie and that the innocent people leave/move on, it seems to fit

whisky_galore

philstar wrote: »

haven't seen it but why is he dressed like a priest from the 1950s ??

priests don't dress like that anymore surely

Maybe he's a hipster priest? :pac:

RC priests haven't worn soutanes for donkey's years.

5uspect

Finally got around to seeing it tonight.

I really disliked it. A beautifully shot but one dimensional movie. There is nothing bleak about it just lazy writing and a waste of such a cast.

RichyX

5uspect wrote: »

A beautifully shot but one dimensional movie.

It had some lovely aerial footage but I thought it looked like dirt otherwise.
Some seriously poor composition and lighting that would be embarrassing in a student film at times.

Planemo

SPOILERS

Saw this on another forum from someone who was at a Q&A with McDonagh, for anyone wondering who killed the dog:

Someone asked about that, and he explained that in the scene where everyone's in the bar, after the dog's been killed, one of the characters has a bandage around their hand, implying that when they slit the throat they were bitten.
So there is a big clue in this classic Agatha Christie "Who Has Done It".

The dog killer was unknown to me, because he said if we wanted to know, we should buy another ticket to the film and keep an eye out. Cheeky.

Friend who worked on this has been going on and on about what a masterpiece it so and last night he arrived with a copy of the film and insisted that I watch it. Threw it on this morning and really struggled to get through it. It's one of those films that is tonally all over the place and simply doesn't work. Bar Gleeson and Reilly, the rest of the cast were very poor though this may have been down to the writing. Much of the film felt like a sketch show without any laughs and the characters simply never felt real.

Aidan Gillen in particular was absolutely dreadful, I have no idea what he was trying to do but whatever it was he failed spectacularly. It's not just one of the worst performances ever in an Irish film but is up there with the cast of Troll 2. O'Dowd was equally poor and I couldn't take that final scene serious given how over acted it was, he can be decent in comedies but here he was out of his depth and it showed.

There's some interesting ideas in play and the sliver of a great film buried withing all the crude attempts at comedy but McDonagh seems content to take the easy path and mine the grotesque caricatures for a few easy laughs completely ignoring the far more powerful elements that the film hints at

The best thing that can be said about the film is that Gleeson turns in an extraordinary performance, he owns every moment of the film and gives a masterclass in acting. He manages to take the material and make it work for him, something his director never manages.

ancapailldorcha

Deleted User wrote: »

Friend who worked on this has been going on and on about what a masterpiece it so and last night he arrived with a copy of the film and insisted that I watch it. Threw it on this morning and really struggled to get through it. It's one of those films that is tonally all over the place and simply doesn't work. Bar Gleeson and Reilly, the rest of the cast were very poor though this may have been down to the writing. Much of the film felt like a sketch show without any laughs and the characters simply never felt real.

Aidan Gillen in particular was absolutely dreadful, I have no idea what he was trying to do but whatever it was he failed spectacularly. It's not just one of the worst performances ever in an Irish film but is up there with the cast of Troll 2. O'Dowd was equally poor and I couldn't take that final scene serious given how over acted it was, he can be decent in comedies but here he was out of his depth and it showed.

There's some interesting ideas in play and the sliver of a great film buried withing all the crude attempts at comedy but McDonagh seems content to take the easy path and mine the grotesque caricatures for a few easy laughs completely ignoring the far more powerful elements that the film hints at

The best thing that can be said about the film is that Gleeson turns in an extraordinary performance, he owns every moment of the film and gives a masterclass in acting. He manages to take the material and make it work for him, something his director never manages.

I nearly completely agree with you save to say that Reilly was one of the worst things about it (Gillen taking the top spot there).

positron

Didn't know much about the movie, and I watched it last night and I enjoyed it.

It was dark and it was shocking. Humour was dark, and everyone apart from Brendan Gleeson and his daughter's characters were a bit over the top - which was probably intentional, but the lack of normal people other than these two was kinda strange. However, as far as the movie goes, it sure throws some shocking stuff at you time to time, and how the little girls father treats Brendan Gleeson.. that just brought a tear to my eye. I took it more as a commentary on general paranoia of adults interacting with children in Western world, a very American thing that is now becoming norm everywhere. It's really really sad that a few pedophile cases is changing the entire world into a place where no child can be trusted with adults who are not the child's parents. It's the real tragedy of this century. Terrorists might have won in inducing fear and paranoa in the West, but this "fear of adults" is home grown. This is not the case in other parts of the world to be honest.

Anyway, good movie - I would recommend it.