Sometimes artists find stories that demand to be told, and that they will go to any lengths to tell.

This is certainly – and perhaps especially – true of filmmakers, as Martin Scorsese’s decades-long development of Shusaku Endo’s novel “Silence” has finally come together in the 2016 film of the same name.

Set in 17th-century Japan, “Silence” follows Portuguese Jesuit priests Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) as they attempt to track down their former mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), who has supposedly apostatized – publicly renounced his faith.

Their journey is arduous, and it should be immediately said that, for viewers who don’t
particularly care about questions of theology or even representations of a time period rarely put to screen, so is this film, clocking in at 161 minutes.

Still, the plodding of the first half of the film is every bit representative of the immense caution these priests had to exhibit while ministering in a country whose government, the Tokugawa shogunate, actively tortured and executed Christians who refused to apostatize.

Yet the film is never “preachy,” so to speak. The point of the film coalesces much later on, but even in the first half “Silence” is less about the black-and-white goodness of the Jesuits and evil of the Japanese shoguns than it is about how to balance faith and practicality.

In often emotional scenes, dozens of Japanese peasants are forced to either trample on “fumie” (plaques bearing religious images, usually of Christ) or be subject to cruel executions.

The film constantly calls martyrdom into question; the priests and viewers alike must wonder if those who refused to apostatize were truly “better” in the eyes of God.

And when these questions finally come fully to the fore – when it becomes overwhelmingly clear that “Silence” is anything but dogmatic – the viewer’s patience is duly rewarded.

Without giving too much away, the message does become muddied as the film marches beyond the point where it should have ended, but keeping the earlier examinations of theology in mind in the face of these missteps means the movie still offers a significant takeaway.

From a technical standpoint, the film is near-flawless. While not necessarily a period piece, the costumes and locations (the film was shot in a Taiwanese national park) bring to life a time and setting of which American viewers have likely seen little.

Only the accents missed the mark here. Garfield tried the hardest to put on a Portuguese accent, but despite an otherwise excellent performance, he was remarkably inconsistent in this regard.

Driver, meanwhile, merely went for the more innocuous “vaguely European” manner of speaking, while Liam Neeson just sounded like Liam Neeson (in yet another portrayal of a “mentor” figure). Still, this is a minor nitpick.

Appropriately enough for a film set in Japan, the ambience of nature featured prominently in one of the more subdued scores I can recall, such that the line where orchestra ends and nature begins is all but nonexistent.

“Silence” is very much a passion project, but one of the better ones in recent memory. It’s slow, yes, even to the point of being unapologetically lethargic.

But its arresting atmosphere and will to recognize that faith need not be without question provides a decent payoff for those who can sit through its extended runtime.

“Silence,” rated R, is now in limited showings. Like my reviews? Have a disagreement? Give me a shout on Twitter at @MovieMuseSean.