Counting Down The Fourteen Best Films Of 2014
In this totally subjective game of lists, there can only be one winner.
#10: Calvary, dir. John Michael McDonagh
Smalltown Irish priest Father James (Brendan Gleeson) reminded me of his beloved golden retriever: a big, gentle, innocent creature. It’s heartrending to watch him stoically endure the callous torments of his awful parishioners – one of whom has vowed to murder him in retribution for having been sexually abused by another priest as a child. Director John Michael McDonagh repeatedly contrasts Ireland’s natural beauty with the ugliness of human nature.
Calvary’s moral sense is both pure and complex. Father James has been targeted because of his goodness; and he follows the example of his Saviour by bravely facing his fate. But he’s no angel; and it’s because he recognises his own failures (and those of the Church) that he forgives human frailties in others. In a year when cinema remained dominated by shallow, simplistic clashes of ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, Calvary offers a movingly subtle and humane alternative.