Opiniões dos críticos

Martin Scorsese's best film in 20 years—since Kundun, in fact, which also happens to be the last of his films to focus primarily on matters spiritual... The moment of Rodrigues' apostasy is, simply put, one of the most extraordinary sequences Scorsese has ever created—a moment of such superlative filmmaking skill, emotional power, and richly complex meaning that it left at least this viewer overwhelmed. (And this viewer, it should be noted, is rarely one to be overwhelmed.)

Martin Scorsese's beautiful new movie, Silence, based on Endō Shūsaku's novel, begins and ends in the same way: a dark screen filled with the noise of summer on the rural coast of southwestern Japan, cicadas rasping, waves crashing, thunderclaps exploding, and rain lashing the rocks.

The multitude of political, moral, and psychological failures is both a strength of this film and its weakness. On the one hand, Silence manages to isolate and meditate on a particularly Catholic kind of spirituality governed by helplessly perpetuated cycles of guilt and confession. A Catholic himself, Scorsese sets out to demonstrate the appeal of this form of spirituality, even as he occasionally allows us to see its inadvertent absurdity.

In terms of cinema style, it's a movie whose story seems rather simply told. And that's true. But the simplicity of the telling is the result of a remarkable distillation. Everything that Scorsese knows about filmmaking is in this movie. Nothing that is unnecessary to his vision of both the narrative and the questions that inform it—no, that fuel it, with a consistent restless passion—is included here.

It's long but engrossing. The shooting choices are unobtrusive but shrewd and imaginative (all the shots from inside the cage!). The performances are marvelous, discounting the now-you-hear-it-now-you-don't "Portuguese" accents (doesn't matter). The photography is stunning — ALL photography seems to be stunning nowadays, but the intelligence behind this made it more than just pretty pictures.

Martin Scorsese may not have the abstract emotional register of Malick, but he does what he does (conventional narrative cinema, I don't think it's unfair to say) better than anyone else on earth... With the gentle spectres of Mizoguchi, Kurosawa and Ozu guiding him, Scorsese gazes up and down at those who hide confusion and terror behind conviction.

Scenes of torture, while never very explicit, might nonetheless be too grueling for the squeamish. Those who hang in there, however, will be rewarded with a sincere, heartfelt examination of faith's limits, or lack thereof

There's an enormous amount to say about this film, but for now, what's most remarkable on first viewing is how committed Scorsese is in denying any instruction on How to Feel or Who to Side With in the film's dialectical sparring of Buddhism and Christianity. Even and especially during moments of great strife and horror, the camera is stubbornly even-tempered, making us complicit in the agonized non-participation of Andrew Garfield's childlike would-be Messiah.

There is an essential balance to Silence, subverting a colonizer's prejudices while also considering the prospect that Rodrigues' missionary work is disseminating objective truth; one does not reduce the other, but enlivens it, makes it meaningful, potent and mysterious.

The calm, stark, contemplative aesthetic of Silence is just as aggressive as the mania of Scorsese's other dramas. If anything, the pace and appearance of Silence intensify its subjects and themes as much as the frenetic, kaleidoscopic style of Goodfellas (1990) conveys the seedy, quick thrills of being a gangster.

Unlike much of Scorsese's canon, Silence has few visual showstoppers or flashy moments. Instead, this furious saga unfolds almost serenely, clinging to Garfield's mesmerizing eyes trying to unpack all of the confusion, rage and desperation warring inside with devout conviction. That battle culminates in the haunting final scene, which brings to an end this desperate search for something tangible.

A movie that will surely grow in stature in the years to come, a great achievement by an American master that we will wrestle with long after everyone has forgotten about ranking their top ten lists of 2016.