Silence

Silence (2016)

I am sure you know all the details by now

Not seeing this sooner was a mistake on my part; at least I finally fixed that mistake:

While I should have seen this almost two years ago, I cannot complain as I finally saw Silence and guess what, it is very good.

Based on a novel by Shusaku Endo, the film is about two 17th century Portuguese priests (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver... eh, close enough ethnically, right?) who go to Japan to try and find Liam Neeson, who has not been heard from for years and is feared killed due to the persecutions that Christians are experiencing over there. Once they arrive, their only problem is not just trying to track down someone they only hope is still alive; things are compounded as some villages of Christians who have to hide their faith are overwhelmed that they finally have priests around to confess their sins to... this overwhelms both Fathers.

This is definitely a mature, measured piece of work as it takes its time over the long runtime to show that the two leads have a crises of faith; I mean, their presence causes a lot of pain for a lot of people as the hunt for these Christians by the Inquisitors and his troop increases and even at times it can be argued the Fathers act selfishly and and instead they should act more like Jesus Christ and make huge sacrifices in order to spare pain for many others. They have difficulty in trying to accept the atrocities that are committed against those people just because of their spiritual faith. I did make a wisecrack about ethnicity but I was not offended by the casting and the three actors I mentioned all did very well in the film; the rest of the cast also performed admirably; there are some great scenes with thought-provoking dialogue and deep, philosophical discussions.

I don't need to tell you guys that this was well-filmed, or that the Taiwanese locations they shot at were beautiful. Naturally a film with such subject matter won't be for all tastes. Anyone can understand being incredibly passionate about something, whether it is religion or something else. However, for me... no matter your religious affiliation or if you even believe in God or are off the beaten path and worship something like snakes or Elvis, this is a rewarding movie that makes you think, as long as you have the patience for its methodical pacing and a handful of particularly grueling moments in a movie that overall isn't an easy sit due to its subject matter.