Mr. Movie review: ‘Silence’ is not Scorsese’s best effort
Martin Scorsese has always been a risk taker. It has paid off with films that have collected dozens of awards and award nominations going back to Taxi Driver in 1976. Most of his films are great. Others are pretty good. And then there’s the rare few that aren’t.
Silence is one of them. It is based on historical fiction by Japanese author Shūsaku Endō.
In 1639, two Portuguese Jesuit priests are sent to Japan to find a priest accused of rejecting the faith. Japan at that time is a nation at war with Christianity, and the priests find much persecution of Christians by the Samurai.
Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge, The Amazing Spider-Man) and Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) play Father’s Rodrigues and Garrpe. Liam Neeson — whose career has degenerated into cameos — plays the apostate priest.
By mid-movie, and as they begin to understand the horror of being a Christian in mostly Buddhist Japan, Rodrigues and Garrpe find themselves in lose-lose situations. The glory they imagine martyrdom to be is much different than reality, and their faith is tested as they witness first hand the persecution, torture and death of the faithful who go willingly into eternity.
Silence has problems, from the casting to the storytelling that slowed to a crawl. Usually this works for Scorsese, but here, he gives us too many long, unedited sequences of prisoners walking, people working and religious services.
Equally tedious are the endless torture scenes. Early on, we get it, so do we really need that many nudges? This is where Scorsese gets caught in the classic plight of less is more. Less might have made it easier to sympathize with the plight of the priests and their newly acquired flock.
Silence does — however — ask important “What would Jesus do?” questions about faith. But instead of an intelligent debate, and on proselytizing and what is truth and how do we know its truth, you’re treated to slow, painful scenes just described.
And at a posterior-numbing 2 hours and 49 minutes, this ends up being torture of different kind.
Silence
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, Issei Ogata, Ciaran Hinds
Mr. Movie rating: 2 stars
Rated R for mature themes, violence. It’s playing at the Fairchild Cinemas Pasco 12 and Queensgate 12, Walla Walla Grand Cinemas.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen.
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it’s your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars to 1 star: Don’t bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
This story was originally published January 19, 2017 at 12:55 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘Silence’ is not Scorsese’s best effort."