While most of the world has only just seen the trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Silence, a religious drama about two Portuguese Jesuit priests (played by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who go in search of their wayward mentor (Liam Neeson) in 17th-century Japan, some critics caught the film around the same time as yesterday’s private Vatican screening. (Yes, that Vatican.)

Early critical reaction to Silence skews toward the impressed, with the occasional “agnostic” response to Scorsese’s decades-in-the-making adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 novel. Some found it difficult to get past the “white male journey of discovery,” though there was much praise of the performances in the film, even for those who did not love it as a whole.

We’ll be getting official reviews later this month when the embargo lifts, but, for now, here are some critical reactions from the Twitter-verse:

The positive:

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/joshrothkopf/status/804107331101409282[/EMBED_TWITTER]

 

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/joshrothkopf/status/804107797797408768[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/BilgeEbiri/status/804103431136931840[/EMBED_TWITTER]

 

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/BilgeEbiri/status/804105290085974016[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/BilgeEbiri/status/804104554648322053[/EMBED_TWITTER]

 

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/davidehrlich/status/804118330122653696[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/DrewMcWeeny/status/804099995062276096[/EMBED_TWITTER]

 

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/DrewMcWeeny/status/804100115233316864[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/DrewMcWeeny/status/804100697083944961[/EMBED_TWITTER]

 

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/DrewMcWeeny/status/804101633965572096[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/DrewMcWeeny/status/804102068793327616[/EMBED_TWITTER]

 

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/kristapley/status/804108214853742592[/EMBED_TWITTER]

And the less enthusiastic:

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/jenyamato/status/804098725404475394[/EMBED_TWITTER]

 

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/jenyamato/status/804103549466480640[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/jenyamato/status/804120760600010752[/EMBED_TWITTER]

 

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/certified_ed/status/804109033603035136[/EMBED_TWITTER]
[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/certified_ed/status/804112514887929856[/EMBED_TWITTER]

To dive deeper into the world of Silence before its Christmas Day release, check out the film’s hypnotic score, which blends more traditional musical composition with birdsong and rainfall. Paramount has released the Kim Allen and Kathryn Kluge score via a For Your Consideration page.

Finally, we have “God’s Point of View,” a mesmerizing supercut highlighting Scorsese’s overhead POV shots put together by a clever fan:

silence-martin-scorsese-andrew-garfield
Image via Paramount Pictures
liam-neeson-silence-image
Image via Paramount
silence-andrew-garfield
Image via Paramount

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