On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 217 reviews, and an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Silence ends Martin Scorsese's decades-long creative quest with a thoughtful, emotionally resonant look at spirituality and human nature that stands among the director's finest works."[61] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 79 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[62]
Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film four out of four stars, stating that, "Silence is a monumental work, and a punishing one. It puts you through hell with no promise of enlightenment, only a set of questions and propositions, sensations and experiences... This is not the sort of film you 'like' or 'don't like.' It's a film that you experience and then live with."Richard Roeper awarded the film four out of four stars, saying, "When Ferreira (Liam Neeson, commanding) finally appears and we learn the truth about where he's been all this time, it further serves Scorsese's central theme about the conflict between adhering to one's sacred vows and traditional beliefs and doing the right thing, the prudent thing, the moral thing, on a very pragmatic level."
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, who assigned it 3½ stars out of four, wrote that Silence "offers frustratingly few answers but all the right questions" and argued that it is among the director's "most spiritually moving films to date".[65] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the story is as simple as its underlying ideas are endlessly complex. [...] Scorsese summons every last ounce of conviction to question the very nature of conviction itself."[66] In Slant, Jesse Cataldo argued, "Tapping into the vast pool of vagueness and uncertainty that exists beneath the veneer of a rigid, righteous belief, Scorsese crafts a versatile, multifaceted work that encourages serious reflection and contemplation.".[67]Alissa Wilkinson of Vox wrote that Silence "is beautiful, unsettling and one of the finest religious movies ever made".[68] John Ehrett of The Federalist praised the film highly, saying, "Silence is a must-see masterpiece about the paradoxes of faith." Ehrett further added, "Complex yet reverent, Silence explores the meanings and dilemmas of Christian faith, and decisively sets a new benchmark for religious films."[69]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, who assigned it 3½ stars out of four, wrote that Silence "offers frustratingly few answers but all the right questions" and argued that it is among the director's "most spiritually moving films to date".[65] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the story is as simple as its underlying ideas are endlessly complex. [...] Scorsese summons every last ounce of conviction to question the very nature of conviction itself."[66] In Slant, Jesse Cataldo argued, "Tapping into the vast pool of vagueness and uncertainty that exists beneath the veneer of a rigid, righteous belief, Scorsese crafts a versatile, multifaceted work that encourages serious reflection and contemplation.".[67]Alissa Wilkinson of Vox wrote that Silence "is beautiful, unsettling and one of the finest religious movies ever made".[68] John Ehrett of The Federalist praised the film highly, saying, "Silence is a must-see masterpiece about the paradoxes of faith." Ehrett further added, "Complex yet reverent, Silence explores the meanings and dilemmas of Christian faith, and decisively sets a new benchmark for religious films."[69]
Ty Burr of The Boston Globe said, "The movie's being promoted as the third in the director's unofficial trilogy of faith, after The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Kundun (1997), and it feels like a self-conscious masterpiece, a summing-up from a filmmaker who, at 74, may be thinking of his legacy."[70] Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out London gave the film five stars out of five, saying, "Scorsese has hit the rare heights of filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman and Carl Theodor Dryer, artists who find in religion a battleground that leaves even the strongest in tatters, compromised and broken."[71] Emma Green of The Atlantic gave the film high praise, stating, "This is what makes Scorsese's film so radical and so unlike many movies about religion: It's actually art."[72] Robbie Collin of The Telegraph gave the film five stars out of five, stating, "Scorsese's brutal spiritual epic will scald, and succor, your soul." Collin further added, "It's the kind of work a great filmmaker can only pull off with a lifetime's accrued expertise behind him".[73]
However, the film also garnered criticism. Writing for Variety, Peter Debruge found major flaws with the film, writing, "Though undeniably gorgeous, it is punishingly long, frequently boring, and woefully unengaging at some of its most critical moments. It is too subdued for Scorsese-philes, too violent for the most devout, and too abstruse for the great many moviegoers who such an expensive undertaking hopes to attract (which no doubt explains why Scorsese was compelled to cast The Amazing Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield and two Star Wars stars)."[74] John Patterson of The Guardian stated in his review, "I fear that Silence expired in the womb during that long gestation period. It is beautiful to look at, but feels inert, humourless and overly devout (to say nothing of over-long; Masahiro Shinoda's 1971 adaptation got Shūsako Endō's 1966 novel on to film using 30 fewer minutes than Scorsese). Perhaps that leap toward the devout is needed to savour it fully – and I found I couldn't make it.
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