Puzzled as to why Silence is rated so low

Rating: 9/10 (30 October 2019)

This is perhaps one of my most contrarian ratings on IMDb - I really think Silence is an amazing film and cannot understand why it is rated as 7.1(!) at the time of writing.
Often referred to as Scorcese's life project - as he spent over 2 decades trying to gather the budget to produce it - Silence dives into the journey of two Portuguese jesuit priests (Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver) to Japan in the 17th century, with the aim of finding their mentor, father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), who is rumoured to have renounced his faith.
The script was based on Shusaku Endo's novel written in 1966.
The imagery of this movie and tonalities are amazing, and really help create the feeling of discreteness and concealment associated with practice of Christianity in Japan in that age, under severe persecution - Silence was even nominated for Best Cinematography in the Oscars.
I have no particularly sympathy for Christian missionaries (Japanese persecution is perhaps no different or worse than what the Inquisition did in Europe) but the way Scorcese depicts the struggle those priests face, between spreading the faith and putting their followers in danger, is absolutely gripping.
There are scenes which are incredibly hard to watch, but in a good way.
The only reason I see for this movie to have less than a 10 are perhaps:
a) casting of Andrew Garfield - don't get me wrong, his acting is great but hard to see him as a pious priest of 17th century given his lush head of hair and after playing Eduardo Saverin or Peter Parker
b) main character personifying Japanese persecution is very cartoonish, with a high pitched voice and overall comes across as too biased
Not the only Scorcese movie that touches on religious matters (Last TEmptation of Christ and Kundun) but definitely very much worth watching
9/10