Calvary

John Michael McDonagh's Calvary asks some challenging questions about the nature of sin and redemption. Are the priests who ignored sexual abusers in their own church just as guilty of their crimes? When Jesus died for our sins, was it tantamount to suicide? If we're just actors in a play that has already been written, do sin and virtue even exist? “Do you know what felching is?” That last question, asked by an unworldly young priest (“I had to look it up”), is a perfect example of the way that McDonagh balances expansive philosophical ideas against naughty-boy shock humor. Much like McDonagh's 2011 debut The Guard, Calvary traffics in that borderline surreal dichotomy between the existential and the vulgar. It is a tough trick to pull off, and while there is a lot to like here, too often the results more smugly suited to the proscenium arch than the letterbox.