Calvary (John Michael McDonagh, 2014, Blu-Ray) It takes considerable effort for me to remember that John Patrick Shanley, Martin McDonagh, and John Michael McDonagh (Martin's older brother) are all different people the same as to remember that calvary and calvary are different words. The brothers McDonagh certainly seem to share similarly writerly inclinations. Calvary is so writerly that, for much of its running time, I felt I was doing it a disservice by experiencing it in film form as opposed to reading the screenplay. On the page, perhaps the self-reflexive references to opening lines and third act reveals would have been more palatable, isolated from the 'wait for laughter' pauses of the film's editing; and perhaps, with some things left to the imagination, all the 'what a character!' characterizations would have seemed less overdone. This is a film that insists upon itself and by the end I found myself yielding to that insistence, largely thanks to Brendan Gleeson's humane performance. Grade: B-
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