This film is a rare and very precious gift, for real. It took me 2 viewings to fully comprehend what message it was trying to convey, and that's true with about any film I see. There are NO flaws in this film. If it seems too slow or introspective or you feel it's not "talking" loudly enough for you, you may be like me: You need to see it at least twice.
It is a quiet, gentle, yet intensely communicative film about damage, sin, more damage, more sin, searching for one's faith, begging for absolution while knowing that life cannot go on, a misguided attempt to intervene, the realization of one's terrible mistakes, forgiveness and atonement.
In an inner-city Catholic parish in Minneapolis, ironically named St. Mary Magdalen's, a caring and compassionate young priest (Jeremy Sisto), ordained 12 years ago, keeps busy and dedicated to God's work. When not listening to busybody wives complain incessantly about their husband's habits, he is counseling mothers-to-be, a conflicted youth who believes he is gay, and an unemployed ex-boxer; or he is running a homeless shelter, praying over the sick/dying, or attending mandatory speaking appearances with the ladies' auxillary.
His life, while super-busy but tirelessly dedicated, seems strangely routine somehow. And then one evening, before Mass, a beautiful blond woman named Linda (Kristin Chenoweth) comes to confession for the first time in nearly 2 decades. She confesses that she wants to end her life on her own birthday, sometime in the very near future, and she strongly needs Father John to give her an answer: Am I damned for eternity if I commit this "unpardonable" sin? She spends a while telling John her sad tale, then leaves abruptly, perhaps angrily.
The first sign that Father John Buerlein is about to embark on an interesting journey was not evident to me on first viewing. And I don't want to spoil it too much; Father John had a certain task to perform, right there in that confessional booth, and he should have concentrated on that one task. As Father Ralph O'Brien (Brian Baumgartner) puts it, "Don't cross that line, John."
From the first moment he encounters Linda, though, John seems unable to put it out of his mind. He finds himself preoccupied even at the pulpit. He keeps hearing her voice, and maybe, he already is aware of the mistake he's made handling this encounter, and desperately needs to make things right before she carried out her final plans. He begins to conduct a search for Linda, whose whole face he never got a look at, only her hair, lips and the crucifix she wore. His desperation, his need to make it up to her that he didn't do what he should have in the booth, drive him to places he would never have gone to. He HAS TO FIND HER. That's all he knows. And it seems he must do what he must. He researches prostitutes in the public library, he takes a prostitute out for a drink, and most bizzare, when the owner of a sex shoppe tells him he has to buy something in order to look around the place for Linda, he buys a porn magazine. Somehow, even though he knows he is treading in dangerous waters, his obsession with finding and stopping Linda is so strong that he believes that if he fraternizes with the patrons of the streets, pimps, prostitutes, peep show dancers and porn shoppes, he will somehow find Linda and save her life. Even when Father Ralph warns John that the presbyter has received complaints about him, John continues his search, slowly becoming more aware that the time for his action has passed, and that now he is on a futile "playing God" mission.
Why is Father John obsessed so? Does he feel like the parish work he's already doing not really go anywhere? Is he, a seasoned priest, not really sincere and on the prowl for some carnal fun? Is he going through the motions, having become "lukewarm" in his faith? Not at all. It's more than obvious, he needs to find Linda again and help her, like he should have in the first place.
The characters Zeke, Gus and Miriam are so mysteriously crafted that at first I was asking, "Angels among us?" Oh yeah, and we can't forget James St. Clair!!!
While we follow Father John on his journey through the dark streets of Linda's world, we take an internal tour of him as well, and as much as I loved Chenoweth's portrayal of the tortured Linda, this is definitely Sisto's film for the most part. We find out a lot about him, and the many sources of earthly, fleshly "temptation" that a lesser person would cave and succomb to. After all the negative portrayals we've seen and heard of Catholic priests, it is as refreshing as a winter night's air to see a man, a young man at that, be this disciplined and dedicated, to possess such a strength of spirit, to be able to resist what most men weaken and lust after. John doesn't even waver in the presence of his beautiful ex-girlfriend Nadine (Amy Matthews) who is back in town and asking him point blank if he still has feelings and desires for her. Don't get me wrong...I couldn't help myself, asking questions like, "Is he impotent? Does porn simply do nothing for him? Is he one of those people who thinks it's as pointless to look at porn as watching someone take a dump? Is he just plain too preoccupied with Linda's plight to care about indulging?" Or am what I am hoping is true, that "Father John is a very rare man, one who truly loves God and takes his role in the church and his walk with God seriously." ?
The film will not be for you if you are looking for action and explosions are one-liners. The humour is extremely good, but there will be no spoofing or schock-sex-humour or big jokes like in a film like DOGMA by Kevin Smith (also an admirable film, a personal favorite of mine, about the Catholic faith, but very different from this!!!) The pace is very fast, but again, the key word here is subtlety. You have to pay close attention to every word, every scene, every detail. The only gripes I'll offer is that I don't know whose pix Linda is looking at in that scene where she is going thru a box of her stuff.
Honestly, I didn't know what I would think of it, being that it is a film about a priest descending into a dark underground to find a hooker. The premise sounds dark, some of the settings repugnant, some of the actions that drive the story dubious, but the film felt anything BUT dark to me. There seemed to be a sweetness and optimism to it, as unbelievable as that must sound. Jeremy Sisto is, as in most of my other favorites with him, a quiet, delicate, yet very strong presence in this sensitive, compassionate, and wonderful story of redemption. Patrick Coyle's love for the story is evident in his direction.
Cast:
Jeremy Sisto as FATHER JOHN BUERLEIN
Kristin Chenoweth as LINDA SALERNO
Brian Baumgartner as FATHER RALPH O'BRIEN
Bruce A. Young as LLOYD MONTAG
Amy Matthews as NADINE BRENNAN
Tony Papenfuss as ZEKE
Greta Oglesby as MARIAM
Ansa Akyea as JAMES ST. CLAIR
Tom Carey as DONALD DUPREE
Isabell O'Connor as TESSIE
Patrick Coyle as STEVEN MILLER
Dawn Brodey as DOLL HOUSE DANCER
and Jackson Bond as DANNY
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