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Andrew Garfield and Yosuke Kubozuka in Silence
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of proselytizing in foreign territories, but the picture also looks more specifically at whether innocent laypeople are actually dying to appease God or to appease the priests. Scorsese and Cocks prefer to keep the queries percolating, only succumbing to obviousness — and, thanks to an ill-advised Heavenly voice-over, unfairness — during the final stretch of this 160-minute undertaking. Garfield, all wrong as the amazing SpiderMan in his pair of so-so superhero ventures, follows up his strong work in Hacksaw Ridge with an equally intense performance in this picture. Those expecting a co-starring role for Driver, however, will be disappointed with his comparatively brief screen time. Among the Japanese actors, Issei Ogata is particularly memorable as Inoue, the cunning and cruel Inquisitor who engages in frequent debates with Father Rodrigues about the impracticality of bringing Christianity to his homeland. Indeed, these conversations are among the highlights of a flawed but fascinating endeavor likely to leave viewers as divided as those Red Sea waters of yore.
whose first (and, by my reckoning, best) film as director was 2007’s excellent adaptation of Lehane’s Gone Baby Gone. But Affleck’s literary loyalty comes at a price, since Live by Night emerges as the weakest of his four directorial at-bats to date. Technically, the picture can’t be faulted: It’s a gorgeous production, meticulously put together by a team of seasoned Hollywood vets. This assemblage includes cinematographer Robert Richardson, who frames the saga in expansive and immaculate ways that seek to enhance the mythmaking (Richardson won a trio of Oscars for similar approaches on Hugo, The Aviator and JFK). Only in this case, the text can’t keep pace with the illustrations. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the story, which centers on Joe Coughlin (Affleck), a Boston mobster who’s sent to Tampa to oversee operations and finds himself tangling with rival gangsters as well as the local Ku Klux Klan. But there’s also little that’s fresh, with Affleck dutifully following a dog-eared playbook that’s been in rotation since the days when James Cagney
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FAITH NO MORE Religious devotion at center of Scorsese drama BY MATT BRUNSON
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EGINNING WITH HIS first picture, 1967’s Who’s That Knocking at My Door, Martin Scorsese has often employed cinema as a reflection on his own experiences and beliefs regarding religion. Considering he had planned on becoming a priest before opting to become a filmmaker, this makes perfect sense, and additional musings on the matter can be found in projects as diverse as Mean Streets, Kundun, Bringing Out the Dead and, most magnificently, The Last Temptation of Christ. With Silence (*** out of four), Scorsese again fully turns his attention to the spiritual side, and the result is a movie that’s both disturbing and deeply committed. To be clear, this isn’t a motion picture for those who superficially wear their Christianity like a shiny pinback button, falling for the long con of money-grubbing charlatans like Steven Furtick and believing their devotion to the Lord ends with slapping an ichthys sticker on a car bumper. Instead, Silence is an uncomfortable and unsettling watch, better at generating questions than supplying answers — which, come to think of it, is perhaps the proper outcome for a film of 24 | JAN. 19 - JAN. 25, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
this nature. Set in the 17th century, Silence follows two Portuguese priests, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) as they head to Japan to search for their mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson). Having had some initial success with converting the locals to Christianity, the Church is rattled by the fact that Japanese authorities are now forcing all of the Jesuit priests and their followers to denounce their faith or face torture and execution. The word is that Ferreira has apostatized, a rumor that Rodrigues and Garupe refuse to believe. Seeking to discover what really has happened to Ferreira, the two holy men are encouraged by the pockets of Japanese peasants who continue to serve God in silence yet aghast at the widespread atrocities being committed by the Buddhists intent on turning back the Western influence. Adapting Shûsako Endô’s 1966 novel, Scorsese and scripter Jay Cocks (the former film critic who also co-wrote the director’s Gangs of New York and The Age of Innocence) have crafted a film packed to the breaking point with thorny issues. Of course, there’s the basic debate over the whole matter
Ben Affleck in Live by Night
“JUST WHEN I thought I was out, they pull
me back in.” That classic line is uttered by Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in 1990’s The Godfather: Part III, but truthfully, it can easily be muttered by any audience member who happens to catch Live by Night (**1/2 out of four), Ben Affleck’s warmed-over plate of gangland goulash. Live by Night marks Affleck’s first project in the director’s chair since his 2012 Best Picture Oscar winner Argo, and he also tackles the roles of writer, producer and star. The movie is based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, and that largely explains its appeal to Affleck,
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would periodically gun down Humphrey Bogart. Select vignettes add some flavor — a sit-down with a Klan flunky leads to an extremely satisfying denouement — but nothing can overcome the implausibility of its leading character, a guy who seems entirely too sweet to be involved in such a nasty business. Affleck brings his usual stoicism (the less charitable would say rigidity) to the role, but that only adds to the dilemma. It’s hard to accept this brooding anti-hero as one of the GoodFellas when there’s an unshakable feeling that he’s apt to whip out his Batman threads at any given moment.