SILENCE is a movie that rests pretty high on many film buff’s must-see-by-the-end-of-the-year lists. For one it’s a Martin Scorsese movie, and two because film buffs can be quite catty (Craig), so you don’t want to be left out of the loop lest ye be mocked by the most vicious of dorks. Now we have the trailer, and the need to see this movie has been cranked up to whatever goes past 11 because holy mother of god. Starring Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as two Jesuit priests who go off to Japan to find their mentor (Liam Neeson) and spread Christianity, only to face heavy persecution, has been a passion project for Scorsese for years, and it looks like he has brought his A++ game.
Behold!
What I like most about the trailer is it avoids the trap of having the movie come off as too bland and, I wanna say, religious-y. I mean, if you try to ask your friend if they want to see a movie about Jesuit priests being persecuted in Japan they would probably say, “Why would you ask me that? Do you see me smoking a pipe and stroking a beard?” But then you’d show them the trailer and they’d immediately scream, “What are they doing to Andrew Garfield!? We have to go see if we can help!” As I said yesterday, SILENCE is shaping up to be something the likes we’ve never seen from Scorsese, offering some truly intense looking scenes along with some terrific production design. Needless to say this won’t play out like any story you had to fight to stay awake through in Sunday school. I don't remember much of my own lessons as a child other than my teacher being a bit of a mumbler, but that may be because I was often drunk in those days. Ah, childhood.
SILENCE with Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and Liam Neeson gets a limited release this December before going wide in January.