 Garfield spent a year with James Martin studying to be a Jesuit priest and went on a silent retreat in Wales.The film's arduous principal photography took place in Taiwan and to achieve his character's physicality, Garfield lost 40 pounds.Kate Taylor of "The Globe and Mail" disliked the film and wrote that Garfield "is sweetly resolute and gently anguished as the missionary Rodrigues but any hope that the actor might elucidate the psychology of philosophical certitude or the pain of religious doubt proves vain".