Would a few more sympathetic characters have helped this movie?

Yes.However,remember that Zionist billionaires conspired to bring down the Catholic Church and Christianity.This is their evil mission....to rule the World and this disgusting multiculturalism is their doing.What are african blacks doing in Ireland?Aside from living free off of hard working Europeans.
Do you suppose that their are plenty of Rabbis and Black Pastors who have not abused children? You best bet there are..but you do not here of it..do you?
My friends and I would often leave America{the cesspool}to go back to Ireland,but no more,because it is not Eire any longer.
Ireland for the Irish.

I think that's just to put more emphasis on the contrarst between the priest's generosity and willingness to help the people from his town and the fact that all they do is make fun of him. the priest is sacrificing himself for those people he wishes to help save. Just like Jesus did in... the Calvary!

Exactly. All these nasty characters ruined the movie for me, it's as if he was living in Hell, there was literally not one redeemable soul in that godforsaken village. If the tone of the film hadn't been realistic, it might have worked, but as it is I found it to be unnerving.

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I agree it kind of hurt the theme of the movie that the church is broken and doesn't really serve anyone but these people were beyond helping short of a fÜcking bat to the head

To put it bluntly, I don't think the movie is lacking in sympathetic characters, but its viewership might be.

Father James' conduct throughout the movie, was of a man of extraordinary sympathy. He puts up with all of the villager's pettiness because of his sympathy for their plights. Why doesn't he rat out the murderer? Its not because he is bound by Catholic rules. The first scene with the church superior (bishop?) makes that clear. So now its down to his own character. He understands what a horrible wrong that man had to endure, he understands the emotions that must be brought up by such a thing. Make no mistake, this murderer of a good priest deserves sympathy. James gives it to him, to the very end. He also gives it to everyone of his parishioners, because they deserve it. To greater or less degree they all bear the natural scars of life.The bartender with the cloud of foreclosure hanging overhead. A wife in a loveless marriage and an unfulfilled life. A doctor who stands alongside death and horrible pain, for a living. The prostitute who, it seems, had horrendous childhood of sexual abuse. Not everyone is able to respond to life's challenges as valiantly as Father James does. I'm not going to sit here and say that they all should act as they do. Just that James sets the example, as to how we should respond to it.

Its interesting here to think about Father James' conversation with the widow. Specifically, her speech about faith in god. Replace "faith in god" with "sympathy" and then think about how small a sympathy it must be to simply collapse under the weight of those villager's behavior.

I think that if there had been a few more sympathetic characters, it would have hurt the movie, rather than helping it.

I am not a very religious person, so I am not especially predisposed to finding religious meaning in the movies I watch. But the title of this film, Calvary, and the quote from St. Augustine at the beginning of the film (“Do not despair; one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume; one of the thieves was damned.”) are pretty strong hints about the underlying meaning.

The movie is an allegory of the ministry and crucifixion of Jesus. Hence the title, Calvary. Father James, like Jesus in the Christian gospels, is executed because he is a good man. The characters all around Father James represent humanity, terribly flawed and needing to be saved. Some are sinful, some are despondent, and some are faithless. A couple of them seek redemption, and we, the viewers, find ourselves sympathizing with that tiny minority, and feeling that only they are deserving of the help that Father James is offering. And yet Father James offers his help to all of them, and he, unlike us, feels that all are deserving of his help, even a serial killer. He has his moments of weakness, just as Jesus did in the gospels, but he finds his resolve and he stays, and for that he is executed. It is no accident that he chooses forgiveness as his favorite virtue, for in this allegory he is the Christ figure who represents forgiveness.

That cast of characters was not intended to be easy to watch. They were intended to be disturbing to the viewer, to create an environment around Father James so stiflingly malignant that we would gladly forgive him for simply throwing up his hands and walking away from a hopeless cause. But he doesn’t walk away. He stays, even though his task seems hopeless, even though he is mocked and insulted, and even knowing that it may cost him his life. If the characters around Father James were not so universally flawed, so despicable, so seemingly irredeemable, then we would feel hope for them, and we would want Father James to stay and save them. But we aren't supposed to feel that hope. We aren't supposed to want to see them saved. We are supposed to want to see Father James save himself, and see the rest of them punished. Instead, we see Father James punished -- punished for the sins of another.

That, I think, was the whole point of the movie, and it doesn't work if there are a few more sympathetic characters around.

Yes, exactly. The film was too oppressive. I enjoyed the acting, cinematography and soundtrack but never want to see this movie again and so won't be adding it to my collection.

Plus, never kill the dog in a movie, ever.