- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
80It's not often that a film changes history, but it's just possible that Irish writer-director John Deery's righteously energetic Conspiracy of Silence just might help alter the course of 21st century Catholicism.
-
70A challenging, thought-provoking debut that compassionately questions the relevance of celibacy in the Catholic Church.
-
Deery's modest drama is one big, obvious argument against the vow of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests, but it has heart.
-
50The story meanders, but the subject is timely and important.
-
50A film based on this information is potentially interesting, but Conspiracy of Silence, set in modern-day Ireland, is incoherent and often hard to follow.
-
50Deery's points are well-taken, but they would have been a lot better made if he hadn't taken so many easy shots at the church by demonizing its local authorities.
-
50Touches on issues raised in "Bad Education," but without Pedro Almodovar's flamboyant elegance.
-
50Feels like a personal vendetta.
-
50Want Jesuitical fineness of argument? Look elsewhere. This one merely answers the prayers of those looking for an argument.
-
50Deery lays out a story devoid of subtlety, in which characters are too easily pigeonholed and issues exist only in absolutes.
-
40The limp thriller plot Deery constructs to frame his theological inquiries is both artificial and not very interesting, a lethal combination.
-
Due to Conspiracy's TV-movie simplicity, it's unclear whether this is an actual issue, or just something spicy to be cooked up in the potboiler.
-
30A well-intentioned but ultimately incompetent Irish dud.