Silence

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, Ciaran Hinds, Issei Ogata, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Yoshi Oida
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Rating: R
Genre: Adventure, Drama
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two Portuguese Jesuit priests (Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver) travel to Japan to locate their colleague (Liam Neeson) who is rumored to have committed apostasy.

Review:

Tim: It took Martin Scorsese over 25 years to finally make Silence, so you can imagine my excitement when it was finally released in 2016. I'd heard about his desire to make this movie for a long time. And, after a quarter of a century of development, we get... a good movie about Jesuit priests. I have to say, while this is a solid film, I was underwhelmed by it. It was certainly interesting and entertaining. Plus, I know know what "apostasy" means. So, overall, the film is worth seeing. The issue is that for a director who has crafted so many incredible, landmark films, this one feels several levels below his best. It's a fine movie, but we've come to expect more from Scorsese.

I actually really enjoyed the three central characters. Andrew Garfield is a very talented young actor and he delivers such a strong performance in the lead role. There's just something likeable about him. He worked well in this film and contributed greatly to my overall enjoyment of it. Adam Driver was also a good choice. They worked well together, even though they are very different actors. Liam Neeson was also wonderfully cast as the older priest the two younger men are searching to find. That aspect of the film is one of the strongest- will these two young priests find the older one and discover if he really committed apostasy? That drives most of the film and it's an entertaining journey. I enjoyed that very much. It's also fascinating to see the behind-the-scenes look at the attempted spread of Christianity in Japan. This isn't a topic I know much about, so the film was very informational in addition to being entertaining. The spiritual themes Scorsese explores are quite thought-provoking as well. I can see why he was so determined to make this movie.

While there are some major strengths, the film obviously has some flaws. The chief one being that the movie is clearly too long at 2 hours, 41 minutes. Now, to be fair, Scorsese keeps things moving just enough so that the film doesn't feel like torture. Yet, it's still a bit of a punishing experience. I have no problem watching long movies if the payoff is worth the time invested. Unfortunately, I can't claim that happened here. While there's a solid list of strengths, the movie really needed to be far better and deliver an even greater emotional punch if it asked us to sit through almost three hours. I would have liked the movie better had it been closer to two hours. After a while, you just start to feel the length of the film. Things feel like they're too drawn out, too redundant. The destination doesn't quite make up for the journey. By the end of the film, I was 10% interested in how these characters' stories would turn out and 90% ready for the movie to be over. That's not what Scorsese needed to leave the audience with. While this is a good movie, it's not surprising that the only Academy Award nomination it received was for Best Cinematography. It was indeed a beautiful movie to watch. Unfortunately, this film was never good enough to be an end-of-the-year awards contender. It's a good film, it's never a great one.

So, like many movies, I feel torn about this one. I enjoyed Silence and I give Scorsese credit for making a 2 hour, 41 minute film about Jesuit priests entertaining. However, he is so talented and has given us so many great movies that you truly can't argue that we got anything close to his best here. This is a movie that will forever live in the shadows of his better ones. I'm glad I watched the film, but I certainly have no desire to ever watch it again.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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