Silent, Yet Too Lengthy

While filmed gorgeously, Martin Scorsese's latest film, Silence, was rather long winded and honestly could have reached the same conclusion in an hour less than the almost 3 hours it ended up being. This film follows two priests (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) from Portugal who travel to Japan to locate their long missing mentor (Liam Neeson), while also continuing to spread Catholicism. This dark, historical tale depicts the gruesome persecution of the converted Japanese Christians and the last of the Catholic priests in the country, through the journey across the country by these two priests. The viewer is greeted with Christians along the way and then faced with the harsh treatment by the great "Inquisitor".

The acting by Andrew Garfield was phenomenal and simply breathtaking. He showed so much emotion through the different trials which he faced during his travels. The sad part was the lack of screen time in which Adam Driver was given for his role. Much of the film sadly focused solely on Garfield's journey through the country side in search of Neeson, while a whole other journey happened for Driver, a journey not shown. This is saddening, as what few scenes we see of Driver are extremely well acted. Then throw in Neeson's lack of scenes, which unfortunately were very poorly acted.

Overall, while I greatly enjoyed the storyline and the cinematography, as well as LOVED Garfield's performance, the torture scenes should have been scaled down time wise to one, shorten the film, and two, provide more air time for quality character building for Driver's character in particular. Out of 10 stars, I would probably give it a 6 or 7, just due to unnecessary film length and missed opportunity for character development.