I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I found it really impossible to try and watch this movie online but managed to have gotten only a few parts to this. Anyways let's talk about the short movie.I found it really OK like as some reviewer said here it's not the best. I thought the storyline was OK but you have to really keep up with it. Although I do understand it's about a buck who got kicked out of the priesthood for thinking he was messing with the fella who was gay. The lad was only straight like.Jesus you would know full well that the catholic church doesn't know a thing about reality. Especially how the amount of sexual abuse cases from their pervy priests made them being spoilt sick men. Sure it'll always be a disgrace from beginning to end. I was surprised that Chris O'Dowd got involved in this, it's a shame he wasn't discovered earlier on in his career! Even i didn't realise Hugh Bonneville from Downtown Abbey was on this too! Seriously I never heard of these people before until later life lol!I give this movie 8/10 even if the quality and the storyline seemed unfinished, it's still good to know the Catholic Church coverups!

I am going to watch this movie in the next day or so. Preliminary to that, I scanned a few reviews here. I want to say, if you cannot write a film review without making your political views the centerpiece of your review, as at least one person did here, then please don't write a review, and if you are that person here, take your review down. I am sick and tired of having every politically relevant film ... or book .. be treated as a reason to get up on a personal political soapbox. I don't give a rat's you know what, what your political views are. I am not here for political commentary. I want to know about the film, and only the film. If you can't write about that, then go away. I will be back with my review of this film in the next day or so after I have seen it. Meanwhile I am giving it the average number of stars it has now, so as not to skew the aggregate rating. You're welcome.

CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE is a moody, dark, probing inquiry into the concept of celibacy of priests in the Catholic Church in Ireland and all the way to the Vatican. The concept, story and script by Writer/Director John Deery are tight, arrow sharp in aim, but ultimately unresolved issues cloud the success of what could have been a pungent movie.Set in a seminary in Ireland for preparing young men for the priesthood, we are introduced to some warmly human characters such as Daniel McLaughlin (Jonathan Forbes), a squeaky clean lad who gave up a girlfriend Sinead (Catherine Walker) to follow his (and his family's) life ambition to become a priest. Naive, warm, loving, athletic and bright, he is the seminary poster boy - until one evening after hours he innocently visits a fellow seminarian's room and is the focus of seduction by the student who kindly says 'we're all only human and have our needs'. Daniel gently declines the advances, leaves the student's room but is observed by an old priest with demons of his own. The priest reports the incident and Daniel is abruptly thrown out of the seminary by the evil Rector Cathal (Sean McGinley) for being homosexual - a charge that couldn't be farther from the truth.At the same time in another part of the seminary the fine Father Sweeney dresses in all his priestly regalia and commits suicide is a gruesome way. His suicide is threatening to the staff of the seminary and a cover-up is immediately put in place. It seems Father Sweeney some four years ago had stirred controversy in the Vatican by publicly exposing his HIV status, alerting the Church and the world that HIV was rampant in the world wide Church. His partner left the priesthood, disillusioned, but following FR Sweeney to the seminary in Ireland.An earnest reporter David Foley (Jason Barry) begins the investigation of the suicide and in doing so finds the reason for Daniel's expulsion as well as the myriad dark secrets being covered by the Church - all to do with the concept of celibacy and the inevitable sequelae of sensual deprivation on priests. One Father Jack Dowling (Hugh Bonneville) supports David and Daniel and is disenchanted with the behavior of the Church against its own priests. Then, without resolving any of these fascinating strings of thought the movie ends, leaving many questions unanswered - as though there are no answers.The acting is uniformly strong (including the likes of Brenda Fricker as Daniel's mother et al), for once giving a spectrum of the priesthood that is not favoring bad or good. These characters are men with convictions and none can be faulted for their stances. The setting in Ireland is magnificently captured by cinematographer Jason Lehel, and Francis Haines and Stephen W. Parsons provide a hauntingly beautiful musical score. As far as it takes us this is a fine film. Perhaps Deery is planning Part II to finish this story! Grady Harp

This is an interesting drama built on some questionable premises: 1. That many priests are HIV positive, and 2. That a good student would be summarily expelled from seminary because he visited another seminarian's room alone in the early evening. Premise #1 seems to me unlikely, especially in the United States, but in Ireland...who knows? Premise #2 is the situation which sets this drama in motion, but it is almost unbelievable that this seminary would expel a student for possible but unproven sexual misconduct, when the whole culture of the seminary was to keep any such conduct, real or imagined, deeply buried in secrecy.That said, the problem of clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church is explored and handled well. The actors are all credible and the film moves swiftly toward the final confrontation scene when all the secret sins are exposed. Then the film is suddenly over, leaving many unexplained plot strands dangling and unresolved. Luckily the DVD contains sub-titles in English. You will need them to understand the swiftly-paced Irish brogue employed by the cast.