“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

Calvary - Movie PosterCALVARY has been called a “dark comedy,” and I certainly agree that it is dark, but I found nothing in it that I would call a comedy.

It stars Breendan Gleeson, an Irish actor who has made some terrific comedies, and in this film he plays Father James, a Catholic priest in a small town in Ireland who hears something startling at the beginning of the film while he is holding Confession.

The person that Father James is listening to tells him about being sexually abused by a priest starting at seven years old and then says in a calm, steady voice, “I’m going to kill you, Father.”

Now, Father James was not the abuser, he is told that he is innocent, but he is also told that is the reason Father James is going to be killed, along with when and where his death will take place.

Later, Father James is advised that the choice is his whether or not to go to the police, and he does go to the police, but for a reason other than to report the threat on his life.

Father James says that he knows who the person is, but later in the film he says that he doesn’t.

So, for the rest of the film we watch Father James conduct his priestly duties and go about the business of living his life while we in the audience try to figure out who the possible killer is and what Father James is going to do when the time comes.

Is it Jack the butcher, whose wife has been knocked about, but not by Jack, or so he claims, but by someone she has been seeing, and not so secretly?

Is it the person Jack believes is mistreating his wife or one of her many boyfriends that person says she has?

Is it Michael Fitzgerald, who is rich and has a nice home, but is now alone after everyone around him has left him?

Is it the owner of the pub where everyone goes to forget their troubles and who seems to have a grudge against Father James?

Could it even be someone we don’t see until the time and place of the death threat?

CALVARY is depressing to begin with, in the middle, and even more depressing after it is over.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”