Truly Dreadful Film

I'll tell you why so serious

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Having attended a Catholic parochial school and then a Catholic high school, one is exposed to many of the teachings of the Church and the duties required of priests in their role of representing Christ on Earth. There's the priestly vow of celibacy and the sanctity of the confessional. If one believes in the doctrines of the Church, the conflicts presented in this movie are bound to be troublesome for the viewer of faith. You have a priest faced with the dilemma of keeping quiet about a parishoner's sexual abuse of his own daughter which came to light in confession. And you have that same priest conducting a homosexual affair as a result of a gay bar hook up. On a side note, you have the young priest's parish pastor conducting a live-in relationship with his housekeeper, thereby sidestepping the role of celibacy in his position as well.It's easy enough to believe that the film makers had an agenda here, and I don't know if that was the case or not. For me it's pretty simple, if a priest who made of vow a celibacy engages in sex with either a woman or a homosexual, then they shouldn't be a priest. Father Matthew's (Tom Wilkinson) justifications to Father Greg (Linus Roache) and himself don't fly because they made a decision in their lives to uphold the vows of the priesthood. On the question of keeping a vow of silence regarding the confessional, I would prescribe to the idea that doing what's right is more important than following a hard and fast rule if that rule were to cause serious physical or emotional harm to an individual. Personally, my own relationship with the Church was strained irrevocably when pedophile priests weren't dealt with the way they should have been, that is, defrocked and expelled to prevent abuse to further individuals. Within the context of the film, I thought the screenwriter and actors did a fairly commendable job in their difficult roles. The subject matter wasn't presented in a sensational way and there appeared to be some thought put into the arguments on both sides with the characters of Father Matthew and Father Greg. For another thoughtful treatment of the priestly requirement on the sanctity of the confessional, one might look up Alfred Hitchcock's 1953 film "I Confess". It deals with a priest who faces a murder charge unless he divulges the identity of a man who confessed to the killing. It's a story in which the fabled director shifts the viewer's attention in different directions in somewhat of a departure from his usual movie fare.

Priest is a touching movie that I have seen recently. In Catholic church, homosexuality is a really controversial topic and in Priest, the main character turned out to be a man who is in love with another man. This act raises a lot of negative reaction among the people who attend the church. But are they sinless enough to criticize the priest? In the Book of John in the Bible, chapter 8 verse 7, the Bible says "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." This statement really makes me think a lot so I will not try to criticize anyone without looking at my sins. Among all the people at the church, only a girl shows sympathy for him. The final scene is so marvelous and emotional when the priest holds the girl and cries with her. This is a movie that someone needs to watch more than one time!

If you are looking for a movie on the crisis in the Catholic priesthood in the late 20th century, this is it. Not related to the recent sex abuse crisis, it deals with adult sexuality and the struggle with celibacy. It also highlights two different styles of leadership among the Catholic clergy.Two priests with decidedly different approaches find themselves in the same parish in working class Liverpool. The younger priest Fr Pilkington (Linus Roache) takes the view that he is in the world but not part of it. His older counterpart Fr Thomas (Tom Wilkinson) plays fast and loose with church protocols while going to night clubs and keeping the parish housekeeper as his live-in girlfriend. Fr Pilkington breaks his own high standards by going to a gay bar where he meets a male partner for his own sexual gratification. When he returns late to the rectory, Fr. Thomas asks if he wants to talk but Pilkington disregards him. Succumbing to temptation, Fr Pilkington is unable to resist getting involved in a sexual liaison. When it becomes public, Fr Thomas becomes his ally and shows that he can befriend a man whose style is so at odds with his own. Without giving away the ending, the two priests have many heated discussions which in an odd way bring them together and leads to a dramatic showdown with their own parishioners. Tom Wilkinson is exceptional in the role of Fr Matthew Thomas; Linus Roche as Fr Pilkington walks a tightrope as a man dedicated to his faith and to his calling but cannot resist the temptation to have sex with another man. If you are interested in the priesthood and its challenges, don't miss this one.

Linus Roache plays a young British priest conflicted over his vocation, by the Catholic rules governing him, and by his sexual orientation (he picks up a lad for sex in a gay pub, and we are to assume this isn't his first time at the rodeo). Beginning with a bit of religious anarchy (which is muted, and then forgotten about), this well-meaning melodrama indicates to us that it intends to be shocking and unsettling. Unfortunately, screenwriter Jimmy McGovern is much too interested in being sympathetic to our hero, resulting in a film that seesaws its way through a number of dispiriting episodes. Some of McGovern's dialogue regarding sex, celibacy, homosexuality, and the church is thought-provoking, but his central character is a dullard. Roache, with his round, empty eyes and gray pallor, hasn't an ounce of charisma. The sparkle that was so needed here is provided by Tom Wilkinson in the smaller role of the older, seasoned priest who is in love with his housekeeper. The movie isn't very well edited or directed, though there are some strong scenes as well as plenty of ludicrous ones. ** from ****