|
In case, you haven't seen it, it's a British film from the mid 1990s about two Catholic priests in a poor parish in Liverpool. Fr. Matthew, the older one (Tom Wilkinson) scandalizes his fresh-from-seminary new assistant, Fr. Greg (Linus Roache) by being theologically and socially liberal and most of all, by cohabiting with his housekeeper (Cathy Tyson), but Fr. Greg isn't exactly following the rules, either, because he cruises gay bars and ends up in a relationship with Graham (Robert Carlyle).
The synopsis sounds so far like a soap opera, but there's more to it than that. Fr. Greg finds out that one of the girls at the parochial school is an incest victim, but because of the seal of the confessional, he can't do anything about it.
Then everything blows up at once, and Fr. Greg feels like a failure and a complete wretch. The bishop sends him to what appears to be a retreat house for wayward priests, presided over by a dyspeptic old fanatic.
But with an engrossing combination of depth and sly humor, these seemingly desperate circumstances lead to an ending that had everyone in my group in tears.
I had forgotten until I saw the credits (I hadn't seen the film myself since it first played at the Portland Film Festival) that the screenwriter is Jimmy McGovern, who was responsible for the edgy and fascinating TV series Cracker (the original British version, please!), which featured a troubled, ornery but insightful police psychiatrist.
Many conservative Catholics boycotted and picketed the film without having seen it--the words "gay priest" were enough to give them conniption fits. On the other end of the spectrum, many atheists gleefully pointed to the film as being anti-religious.
However, the members of my church in Portland, along with other liberal Christians who saw it, thought that it was thought-provoking and moving.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
