SILENCE

Martin Scorsese has made one of his finest films — a slow, often heartbreaking meditation on faith under fire that, remarkably for this director, ends up honoring the Christians it depicts rather than mocking them. Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver anchor it with excellent performances, and the film's final act actually confirms faith in Christ's work on the cross. That's rare, and it's worth taking seriously.

It's also unsparing. The persecution scenes are extreme and disturbing — real torture, real executions, filmed without flinching. The theology is genuinely complex, touching on historic heresies most viewers won't recognize by name, and it may need a conversation afterward to land rightly.

If you're an adult or an older teen who can sit with hard suffering and hard questions, this film will reward you. If you're choosing for children, this one isn't for them.

Two young Portuguese priests, Sebastian and Francisco, sneak into 17th-century Japan during a brutal government campaign against Christianity. Word has reached Europe that their mentor, a revered missionary priest, has renounced his faith under torture. The two men go to find out if it's true — and find a nation where believing in Jesus can cost you everything. What happens once Sebastian is captured, we'll leave for the screen.

Four stars, and they're earned. Scorsese directs with restraint and weight, and the naturalistic, unhurried style — closer to an art film than a blockbuster — gives the persecution scenes their terrible power. Garfield gives another excellent performance following his work in Hacksaw Ridge; Driver and the Japanese cast match him scene for scene. The film is a little overlong and, at times, deliberately slow, which will test some viewers' patience. But the craft is real, and the film's best scenes — a martyrdom on the beach, a final confrontation of conscience — are unforgettable.

This is a Christian, moral film set inside a pagan, brutal persecution — and it takes both faith and doubt seriously. It's full of positive references to Jesus, prayer, salvation, and heaven, and it stages real theological arguments rather than caricatures, including a former priest who argues against Christianity and claims Japan is a "swamp" where the faith can't take root. Some of this theology is dense enough that families may want a pastor or teacher to help unpack it afterward.

Doctrinally, the film lands in a good place. It rejects the legalism that says a forced or coerced denial of Christ automatically damns a person — but it also rejects the opposite error, showing a guide who recants and returns to faith over and over as a pitiable man who has likely never truly been born again. Real faith bears real fruit. The film's one real weakness is theological emphasis: it dwells on Christ's suffering far more than His resurrection victory, so viewers should remember what the film mostly doesn't say — that Jesus didn't just share our suffering, He conquered it.

The ache underneath this whole story is the ache of feeling abandoned by God in the middle of suffering. Scripture doesn't dodge that ache — it names it and answers it: "And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4).

Scorsese has made a rare thing: a violent, demanding film about faith that ends up affirming the faith it depicts. It costs viewers something real — extreme, disturbing suffering on screen and theology dense enough to need a follow-up conversation. For the right audience, older teens and adults ready to sit with hard questions, this is a film worth the trip. Choosing for younger viewers instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.