Disc Reviews

Calvary Blu-ray Review

8th Aug 2014

Brendan Gleeson reteams with his The Guard director and brings this darkly comic, but thoughtful piece about a Priest given a week to put his affairs in order before he is murdered.

Yes you read that right, Father James Lavelle is a good man working among many a black sheep trying to make the world a better place. But one of his flock has decided that enough is enough and, in order to make a mark on this Earth for the wrong that was done to them, they have decided to murder a decent and innocent man of the cloth.

Lavelle then spends the next week reflecting on his life and those around him whilst continuing to do his usual rounds checking in with his local Parish. But it’s going to be a dramatic week.

Calvary is brimful of character actors – all aching to provide Lavelle with some sort of moral issue for him to lament on with them. Some people are more in need for answers than others – but for the large part you often feel that most of his flock are beyond saving and are content just to live worthless lives with as many dark inflections as they can come up with – all with the full intention of teasing and provoking Lavelle.

Gleeson, it will come as no surprise, commands the screen yet again in a full formed performance of a man on the edge. Writer-Director John Michael McDonagh delivers once again a blackly laced drama that levies from the comedic to the dramatic in a similar way he did with the Guard – frankly it makes you hope they reteam once again in the near future as both are clearly at their best together.