Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield. © 2016 Paramount Pictures.

Adam Driver has the long face and angular features of a wooden icon. Although he’s not the central figure of Martin Scorsese’s Silence, he perhaps best embodies the steadfast believer in a frequently moving but occasionally meandering epic about faith. But since this is a Martin Scorsese picture, the film is as much about the power of the image as it is about the power of God.

Early scenes set up a brutal martyrdom, as the Japanese inquisitor orders Christians—Jesuit priests as well as Japanese converts—to be tortured with boiling water carried in sieves that dispense hot drops that burn like coals, while Jesuit priest Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) watches on in horror. The Christians are given a terrible choice: deny their faith by stepping on an image of Jesus, or else face a slow and painful death.

When Ferreira disappears, and is rumored to have renounced his faith, Portuguese Jesuits Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garrpe (Driver) journey to Japan to find out what happened. When they arrive, they find grateful Christians hungry for leadership.

Non-Christians and even some believers may find it difficult to appreciate the dilemma faced by these 17th century worshipers. Yet this simple choice wields a remarkable cinematic power: it’s gutwrenching to see what happens when these believers refuse to deny their faith, and it’s also heartbreaking when they do renounce God.

How can non-Christians approach this extremely Catholic material? Perhaps in recognizing these characters as flawed men, from Rodrigues, whose convictions may not be as unchangeable as he hopes, to Kichijiro (Yôsuke Kubozuka), a chronic Judas who repeatedly betrays the Jesuits only to come back begging for forgiveness. Unlike many of Scorsese’s best-known characters, these men do not wield guns, but find their strength—and weakness—in something eternal.

Director Martin Scorsese has waited decades to adapt Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 novel Silence for the screen, but it begins with what feels like an afterthought: a black screen scored to the sound of crickets chirping before the title’s generic font appears. Scorsese’s depiction of the film’s Japanese characters can be problematic, as both Kichijiro and the Japanese Inquisitor Inoue (Issey Ogata) come off as caricatures at times.

Which leads to the film’s secular conflict: much as the Jesuits struggle to place Christian roots in Japan, so the director struggles to fit the Japanese sensibilities of his source material to his Western eye. He’s not entirely successful. Still, Silence is a powerful if overlong film that, despite its flaws, depicts an inspiring courage and fortitude.

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Silence
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese, based on the novel by Shūsaku Endō.
With Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson
Rated R for some disturbing violent content
161 minutes
Opens today at Landmark E Street Cinema, Landmark Bethesda Row, and Angelika Mosaic.