Silence is a Good Thing

Rating: 8/10 (20 February 2017)

The movie opens in pitch black with just the background noise you would hear in a Japanese forest when all of a sudden all sound cuts completely as the title of the movie flashes on the screen. From that moment I knew I'd be in for a great movie and I was right.
Silence is a movie not just about faith but more about what that concept means to different people. What are you willing to give up for your faith when others lives are on the line? Is it worth it? These are big questions and Scorsese attempts to answer them in as best a way as he can. Even if at times he doesn't answer all the questions, he leaves it up to the audience to discuss at length afterwards.
The story begins as two priests from Portugal head to Japan to attempt to find one of their own who they fear is either captured at best, or he given up his faith at worst. As they make the trip they find themselves thrusted directly into the lives of a town of hiding Christian's during a period of inquisition and fear in Japan. There are a lot of similarities that could be drawn to the inquisition here and those that were held by the Christian's themselves in other parts of the world but that's a different discussion suffice to say that it seems the movie is acknowledging it. It even seems at times the movie asks you to question who actually is wrong and who is right.
The performance by Andrew Garfield is the driving force of this film along with some great help from Adam Driver and a slew of wonderful Asian actors. Liam Neeson also gives a memorable performance during the climax of the film. Beyond that all of these performances and moments are assisted by a mostly absent soundtrack, with most moments filled with appropriate silence to make you reflect and draw your own emotion.
As you'll find when you look up this movie, it is long. At almost 3 hours it does drag at times if but briefly but I was surprised to find myself at the end thinking it had flown by. The dragging mainly comes at the end of the movie as there are multiple times I thought it would end and then it didn't. The cinematography is beautiful with amazing shots of forests, ocean shores, caves and Japanese culture which more than makes up for the length because it feels like you are glimpsing at something truly majestic.