Silence

There's a reasonable argument to say that SILENCE is one of Martin Scorsese's better movies. The talk is that it was a passion project of his for decades, finally being released in all it's artistic endeavors and mysteries. I suppose someone else could argue the opposite: that this is a story full of brutality and despair without the signature style of the aged director. I think I'm falling right on the middle on this one. This is surely one of the year's most powerful stories, and yet I have to admit it left me cold.

The story follows two priests from Portugal (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who venture into hostile Japanese country in search of their mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), who has abandoned his Christian faith. Some chalk it up to mere rumors. These two young ministers take the journey to find out for themselves.

What begins as a fairly traditional story ventures into the heart of Japan in the 16th Century with a sharp attention to both detail and horror. This is less a story of a search for one man as it is an odyssey into the despair found in conflicting religious beliefs. Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) holds hope that Ferreira is alive while also working to convert as many locals under cover of darkness. Upon landing on the shores of Japan (smuggled in on small fishing boats from China), he encounters villages of faithful Christians who worship in secret. For them, the arrival of Rodrigues and Father Garupe (Driver) is confirmation of their beliefs. Through language barriers, it seems that God is always present.

As we delve further into the country towards Nagasaki (where Ferreira is said to be held), the two priest break off on separate journeys. Rodrigues, though oftentimes alone, is shadowed by a Japanese recluse named Kichijiro, a drunk who once betrayed his faith in order to spare his life (he witnessed the execution of his entire family) but returns to the faith time again in order to make Confession and amends with the Lord. Rodrigues continues to absolve him, and yet this is the slow unraveling of an aspect of this story: do the Japanese really comprehend the religion in the same way Westerners do?

There are three people who make this movie better than average: Andrew Garfield surely gives one of the year's best performances as a man trapped in his own personal Hell, forced to grapple between martyrdom and eternal damnation. It's a strong year for Garfield, getting accolades and Oscar buzz for his other leading role in 'Hacksaw Ridge.' Trust me, this is the better performance. Second is the skill of Martin Scorsese, who slowly paints a portrait of a time long forgot with such attention to tone. It's a horrifying and at times morbid story to sit through, but there was never a moment I found myself any less than fully-focused and contemplative.

Third is a surprise, a breakthrough performance by a Japanese actor named Issey Ogata who gives without a doubt one of the year's most memorable performances. Throughout the film the Christians living in Japan are routinely inspected by samurai officials who intend to hunt down and capture any found citizens in violation of the law. One such official is Inoue Masashige (Ogata) who treats the job with a certain flair. Constantly waving a fan and with an ear to ear smile, this is a performance that steps above the rest of the cast by perfectly encapsulating the braggadocious nature of Japanese law without missing a beat. It's a winking devil performance that I hope the Oscars won't look over.

'Silence' is at times hard to palpate and yet rewards the audience for it's patience. Whether or not this film can be interpreted as being pro or anti-Catholic is maybe not the ultimate message of this film. While the final act delves into a horrifyingly-dark arena, consider the final shot before the credits begin to role (I won't spoil it). In such a brutal era with antiquated customs, isn't there still hope left to be found?

This was Martin Scorsese's passion project. The reason he waited so long was because he didn't feel like he was ready. But when he finally made it, it bombed. Silence is a deconstruction and an examination of faith and spirituality. It's long, patient, quiet, slow. Thus, by the end of the film you will be exhausted. Andrew Garfield gives one his best performances, watching his soul gradually crumble was nothing short of heartbreaking. Adam Driver and Liam Neeson were great as well. Silence is a film not to be played as background noise. It's very hard to watch at points. But if your patient and committed to view it in it's entirety, you'll find something immensely rewarding. Silence is Scorsese's most underrated film, as well as one of the most underrated films of the 21st century.

'Silence' is exactly what you would expect from a Martin Scorsese film in that it is well-produced, written and shot with a strong storyline and engaging lead characters. There aren't many films that explore religion and faith as deeply as this one and there's no doubt that it is an intellectual, thought-provoking piece that Scorsese has created. It's also visually stunning - as a piece of filmmaking 'Silence' is difficult to fault.

It is, however, very easy to fault as a piece of entertainment. For all its technical merit, the truth is that this is an overly long, tediously slow and largely dull film that the average viewer will struggle to sit through. The pacing does it no favours and the near three-hour running length is excessive to say the least. It could have been condensed to closer to the two-hour mark without losing much at all from the storyline.

'Silence' is obviously more likely to appeal to those with religious/spiritual beliefs, and they would probably get a lot more out of this film than I did. A well-crafted film, but rather dull and unrewarding for the average viewer.

Silence (2016)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Priests Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) travel to the dangerous Japan where they are looking for their mentor Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) who is said to have turned his back on God. Ferreira was there to teach the Japanese people Christianity but soon members of Japan began killing the missionaries as well as their own people. Before long Rodrigues is questioning his faith and what power it might really have.

Martin Scorsese had been trying to get Shusaku Endo's novel made for well over twenty-years when he finally got the greenlight. Some reports stated that the directed refused to make another picture until his dream project came to be and in 2016 it was finally released. It was released to mostly positive reviews but it quickly became clear that it was a box office dud and it even managed to get shut out at Oscar time, which is something very few Scorsese movies could actually say. What's sad is that so many religious movies take the subject on without being overly serious or asking any questions and they become hits. This one here asks some really challenging questions and no one is there.

I'm not going to call SILENCE a masterpiece because I found there to be some flaws in the picture but there's no question that the direction, acting and all technical aspects are terrific. I will talk about the major flaw I had with the picture and it's during the first ninety-minutes. I honestly thought twenty of these minutes could have been edited out because I thought it took the film way too long to move forward and get to the real meat of the story, which is the Priest and Father Ferreira having a battle of wills. The film is about one questioning their own faith in brutal conditions and the final hour is where the film really sours and I can't help but think it would have been better had we gotten here a tad bit further.

With that said, there's still an extremely deep look at faith going on here and I really loved the fact that it didn't treat the subject lightly or take on that mentality that you can't question your faith. The screenplay by Scorsese an Jay Cocks really digs into both of the Priests and their view on the horrors that they are witnessing people going through in the name of Christ. I thought the film had some deeply touching moments where people must question their faith, stay true to what they believe in even when they know their lives will be taken. There are some really powerful moments scattered throughout the film and the fact that Scorsese decided not to use a music score adds to the power.

Then there are the performances, which are wonderful. Both Driver and Neeson are extremely good but so are the various supporting players. Yosuke Kubozuka and Shin'ya Tsukamoto are excellent in each scene that they're in. Then you've got Garfield who really shocked me here. This is a rather quiet role where the actor has several scenes where he's just by himself, thinking to himself and to me this is where Garfield really shined. The quiet nature to the performance means that the actor had to use his emotions and eyes and I thought he did a remarkable job.

SILENCE isn't a film that's going to appeal to a lot of people and I'm sure some will find the subject and its questioning faith to be something they won't want to sit through, which is a real shame. It's certainly a film that will take multiple viewings to do it justice but it's a unique film.

It begins with a cacophonous medley of environmental sounds, such as crickets chirping, before cutting to absolute silence and the title. And then to a shot of severed heads. Perhaps this is Scorsese adding in some of his signature bits of artistic representations and violence. But what follows is an excruciating exercise in repetition, as faith is tested again and again for nearly three hours, with a relentlessness better reserved for succinct motifs, not heavy-handed, protracted lessons on religious dogmata.

"There's little peace for us now." The progress of spreading Christianity in Japan has been halted by persecution and destruction. The remaining padres have - along with their followers - been brutally murdered. Some even ask to be tortured to demonstrate their faith in God, but the end result is the same.

When a letter reaches Father Valignano (Ciaran Hinds), purporting that one of the strongest of all priests, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), has apostatized and taken up a Japanese wife, two young padres refuse to accept such an unequivocal falsity. Resolute in clearing his name, they determine to make the hazardous journey to Japan to find out the truth about Ferreira's whereabouts. Father Garrpe (Adam Driver) and Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) were directly under his tutelage, and so procure a Japanese man, Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka), living in Macao, to aid in their smuggling onto the island.

By 1640, Garrpe and Rodrigues are the last two priests to witness the aftermath of the 20 years of Jesuit persecution in Japan. They make their way to the tiny village of Tomogi before moving on to Goto, where remnants of Christian believers still secretly practice their faith. They must hide during the day and hold mass in the dead of night, always in fear of being found out by the Inquisitor (Issei Ogata), an elderly, somewhat comical man charged with seeking out and eradicating the perceived threat of Christianity.

"Silence" does exhibit stellar performances, especially when it comes to exceptional courage through unshakeable beliefs (Driver being far more convincing than Garfield, in appearance and speech). There are also opportunities for contrasts and fluctuations in adherence to such religious principles, particularly with Kichijiro, who comes to represent many of the failed ideologies mistranslated or misunderstood in proliferating a system so fundamentally alien to many of the formerly Buddhist inhabitants. Doubt also creeps in, as Garrpe grows impatient and Rodrigues questions the illusory habits of a deity that unexplainably remains absent in the most anguishing of times. The two priests, along with most of the villagers, are desperate for tangible signs of faith - signs that occasionally become more valuable than faith itself.

In this perpetual search for validation and proof of God's omniscience, there are numerous sequences of profound conviction, made more striking by the increasing pitifulness of the survivors and the escalation of tortures inflicted on those who refuse to renounce the invading religion. But, correspondingly, in this indulgent, overlong epic of potent morals, where the individualization of religious implications routinely trumps the bigger picture (along the lines of the infuriating yet purposeful justifications seen in "A Man for All Seasons"), there's fleeting entertainment value to be found. It's a historical lecture more than a moving examination of theological unity or human weakness, and surely a plodding series of reiterations on shaping spirituality through pain and fear. It's not quite the "priestsploitation" nonsense that it could have been, but it's nevertheless redundant, light on engaging drama, heavy on physical and psychological trials, and sparse on monumental ideas. Particularly with its finale, "Silence" attempts to think for the audience, so that they don't have to strain to uncover subtle genuineness; religious viewers will certainly interpret various sequences to a greater (or different) degree than those without perspectives comparable to the characters on screen.

• The Massie Twins