Silence (2016), R, ★★★1/2

Let the Lord look down upon you.

I have been speaking against movies surrounding any sort of religion or faith that could change people or be overdone with those topics. Lately, the faith-based films have been lackluster in exception to Miracles from Heaven, which I thought was solid. Martin Scorsese has taken 28 years to develop this project that is based on the book from Shasaku Endo. Scorsese wanted to dial down from his loud thrillers or crime biographies to bring us a cinematic epic-looking tale of how people who cannot believe in Christianity are being treated and how faith can restore one's pride and glory but can hurt people by punishment for death. The movie explores the pros and cons of how Christianity can affect people in such a quiet and delicate manner that the experience was breathtaking and disturbing to behold. This is one of the most personal movies from Mr. Scorsese.

In 1637, two Portuguese Jesuits named Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Garrpe (Adam Driver) are being read the letter that was last written by Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), who is living in Japan being married but cannot raise the topic of Christianity for it is forbidden. The priests tell Father Valignano (Ciarán Hinds) that Ferreira was not a huge believer in Christianity. They are dispatched to discretely minister the Christians but also to find Father Ferreira and clear his name.

Christians are no longer allowed in Japan because of all of the torture that is going on, spearhead by the Inquisitor official named Inoue (Issei Ogata). They are taken by a Chinese boat, transporting to Japan under the guide of a man named Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka). He promises to lead them to the Christians although we see him praying, he does not acknowledge himself as a Christian. The trio eventually makes it to Japan and they are escorted to a safe house. Rodrigues and Garrpe communicate with the Japanese as they realize they have lived years without a priest. Since the Christians are not allowed to have any object that represents the religion, Rodrigues makes a crucifix.

Even the two missionaries have been spotted later in the film, the visitors from Goto have kept their Christian beliefs a secret because authorities have not persecuted them. Rodrigues becomes the priest for Goto and provides mass and is happy to listen to other inhabitants' confessions. But when he returns to Tomogi, he has learned that samurai and his men have taken a few people hostage after suspecting and learning that there are secret Christians in the village. Rodrigues now becomes fully aware that the villages and the priests must be careful otherwise, the magistrate will punish them via death.

Liam Neeson.

The movie delineates the morals of how Christianity can affect people when they have to be kept secretive and how martyrdom can beset guilt and questions in terms of Rodrigues' belief of telling the villagers and also the magistrates later in the film about the importance of Christianity. The questions are explored in both a quiet and detestable manners that is not inappropriate because not all nations adhere to the same religion. We explore as to why Christianity is represented as poison for the Japanese but in one scene, he says to Rodrigues that no Japanese has ever understood the concept of God and they will never will but he has to pray quietly.

What hurt the movie a little bit is a couple of things is 1) I think the pacing is a little slow as it represents its time length of almost three hours. I believe that if Scorsese trimmed it down to a tighter representation and exploration as why Christianity can afflict pain upon Japanese citizens, it could have potentially become a masterpiece. 2) There's not much exploration or depth as to why Christianity is poison but raises ambiguity in its torture scenes and also its questions regarding punishment for another religion. 3) The ending becomes a bit too conventional for the tone of the film.

Andrew Garfield gives another powerful performance as a priest that has the right belief in his own mind and heart to raise awareness on Christianity but slowly pays the price and becomes depressed while trying to figure out why all his right beliefs become immoral in another nation as to being tortured both physically and psychologically. Adam Driver gives a solid supporting performance as the second priest who tries to also do the right thing but also raise some logic into their findings. I really liked Issei Ogata as the Inquisitor, who gives a quietly evil and chilling performance. He becomes unpredictable as he establishes that Rodrigues' glory is the villagers' suffering as he also balances humor into the mix. If you want to see Liam Neeson in this movie, he has a small supporting role. He is not in the movie that much.

After coming off the loud but sensationally entertaining The Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese has made a more patient, quietly chilling and faithful adaptation of the book that will maybe appall some viewers but allow you to take a breath as you think about what the whole story meant for an agnostic or firmly religious person. It is chilling to see followers or men of God being suffered as his son was suffering through because Christianity can spread almost to everybody even though there are boundaries in some nations. He has made some theological pieces such as Kundun, a movie that was all right and The Last Temptation of Christ a movie that is flawed but good. Even throughout his gangster films, Scorsese provides the themes of guilt into people who suffer through the sins of pride and hypocrisy and this is another one in his filmography and it is almost mesmerizing to behold. It is a slow and difficult movie to conceive but the movie strikes as a visionary personal experience thanks to his expertise camerawork and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and editor Thelma Schoonmaker.

***1/2