Film Review - Silence (15)

I pray but I am lost. Am I just praying to silence?

Director Martin Scorsese dealt with Christianity in his controversy-baiting The Last Temptation of Christ and with Buddhism in Kundun. Now he brings the two crashing together in a brutal and tortuous epic, which spares neither its audience nor its central protagonist Padre Rodrigues. Silence is a tough, demanding watch, but also a reminder of what a challenging and fearless director Scorsese can be.

Set largely in 17th Century Japan, the story is of Rodrigues and Garrpe, two young Catholic priests, whose mentor Father Feirrera (Liam Neeson) is rumoured to have recanted his beliefs while pursuing missionary work. Japan's Christians are suffering fierce persecution at the time, but Feirrera's former pupils refuse to accept that so godly a man could have been made to reject his religion. 

Thus the padres (played by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver), set out across Japan to find him. Their guide is a drunken, shambling character of dubious motives named Kichijiro (rather reminiscent of Gollum leading hobbits to Mordor). The events that follow test both priests' faith to its limits, in ways neither could have imagined. 

Silence is a study of faith under pressure and of the doubts that inevitably result. It also wrestles, as do its protagonists, with issues of truth and with what happens when contrasting cultures and beliefs collide. This is grand and ambitious storytelling. Events play out on an often gorgeous backdrop, both natural and architectural, which does nothing to ease the cruelty on display. It's also intimate, dealing with seismic world events by focusing on the struggles of individual human experience.

At the core of the film are a clutch of heartfelt performances. Driver is tempestuous as Garrpe and Garfield excels as the earnest Rodrigues. His dark, arduous night of the soul is reminiscent of Christ's passion, and he portrays it with depth and conviction. By the end of the film you'll have gone through it with him.

The Japanese cast is impressive too. The Christian characters are moving, while the Buddhism-embracing authorities are never caricatured, despite the cruelty of their actions. As an ageing Inquisitor and his translator, Issei Ogata and Tadanobu Asano are both inscrutable and fascinating. The debates between them and Rodrigues are some of the movie's most intriguing scenes - unnerving, philosophical and even bizarrely funny at points.

Silence is not flawless. At times the sheer length of Scorsese's film can be felt. The lingering camerawork is more appropriate here than The Wolf of Wall Street's rapid-fire editing, but at times the pacing is a bit too languid. The religious symbolism of Rodrigues' story is also hammered home more than necessary by the script. 

None of that takes away from the film's harsh beauty however, or its thematic depth. Yes there are distressing scenes, but there's also a sense of a writer/director grappling with very personal issues of belief and doubt in an unforgiving world. In more ways than one this is a passion project. And like last week's A Monster Calls, it doesn't flinch when dealing with tough questions. 

(Okay, maybe a bit too tough. I promised reviews of cinematic treats in 2017. I think next we need a visit to La La Land soon. What do you think?)