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CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE Send This Review to a Friend
Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry? The controversial celibacy issue is front and center in this bold, suspenseful drama about how the issue affects priests and seminary students in a town in Ireland. A newspaper exposé, cover-up, suicide, AIDS and a love story are ingredients in writer-director John Deery’s no-holds-barred “Conspiracy of Silence,” which also has abundant local color and a stalwart cast.
Daniel McLaughlin, played earnestly by Jonathan Forbes, longs to be a priest, but when he is reported for coming out of another student’s room, he is expelled, along with another student, with a false accusation of homosexuality. But Daniel fights back against the injustice. There are excellent scenes at home, particularly a moving one with Brenda Fricker as his mother.
David Foley (Jason Barry) is a crusading local newspaper reporter who begins digging into Daniel’s situation, which in turn leads deeper. He underestimates the power of the Church and the forces against him and is pressured to stop his inquiry in the face of threats to himself and his family.
Daniel has known Sinead (Catherine Walker) for a long time and they are in love. He sees no reason why his desire for the priesthood should preclude marriage and a family.
The issue is never resolved—as in real life—but Deer makes us feel for the couple and for Danny’s commitment to his goal in life.
There are excellent portrayals of the various priests by Hugh Bonneville, John Lynch, Jim Norton, Sean McGinley, Harry Towb and Hugh Quarshie. The film also casts Gay Byrne as himself, who does a TV chat show on celibacy in the format of the show for which he has become famous in Ireland.
This is a first feature for Deery, so he can be forgiven some of his melodramatics that challenge credibility even while one may want to cheer the upheaval that results. That aside, “Conspiracy of Silence” is a strong effort that adds to the subject and asks an audience to think about it and accept that some of the hypocrisy exposed goes as high as the Vatican. A Watch Entertainment release.
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