Touches You

So much average

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

"The Confessor" AKA "The Good Shepherd" is a well-acted drama.The plot: Father Daniel Clemens (Slater) has uncovered a murder mystery involving other priests and corruption in his church. Can he uncover the truth? Christian Slater puts in a good performance as usual. Parker also holds her own. The mystery is a little uneven and the ending is weak, but overall the movie is worth seeing. It goes in too many directions. The director made another movie called "Gone Dark" which is a hidden gem.In the end: "The Confessor" is decent little mystery if you don't take it too seriously.For more insanity, check out: comeuppancereviews.com

(There are Spoilers) When the very beloved and respected Father Andrews,Von Flores, is found by Mrs. Lucy Gallagher (Nancy Betty), his church's landlady, at the scene of young Eric Halloran,James Dallas Smith,murder he instead of asking for a lawyer asks for his fellow priest Father Daniel Clemens, Christian Slater,to talk,or confess,to.Adamantly denying any guilt in Eric's death Father Andrews still won't tell Father Daniel the possible reasons behind Eric's murder! It seems that Father Andrews has a strong suspicion who killed Eric but can't reveal it either to the police or Father Daniel. The killer confessed his about to commit crime to Father Andrews during confession!Believing Father Andrews story Father Daniel goes so far as getting his former girlfriend, before he joined the priesthood, WPPI TV news reporter Madelline Finney, Molly Parker, to interview, in jail, Father Andrew and see what she can get out of him. It turns out, Finney finds out, that Eric was a street hustler who was shaking down his customers for cash and that possibly Father Andrews was one of them! It gets even more interesting when Father Daniel checking Father Andrews mail finds that he was in contact with the gay Catholic group called "Equality"! If this became public to his superiors in the church that would have had Father Andrews defrocked and booted out of his parish St. Dominic.As things start to tighten around the besieged Father Andrew's neck he's suddenly found hanged in the prison shower! This sets off alarms with Father Daniel in that it's very obvious to him that Father Andrews didn't kill himself. A strongly religious man like Father Andrews who was willing to spend the rest of his life behind bars by not breaking the church's voes of confession will never kill himself, a mortal sin, and be damned for all eternity!The movie has Father Daniel as well as reporter Finney uncover a number of clues to just what was the relationship between the two deceased Father Andrews and Eric Halloran. Like Father Daniel suspected someone whom Father Andrews took into his confidence,during confession, murdered Eric in that he was blackmailing him.Despite keeping quite Father Andrews was himself murdered by Eric's killer in fear that he may break under the pressure of police interrogation and spill the beans on him as well! The church wanting to keep the whole murderous affair behind it had Father Daniel kicked out for his bulldog-like insubordination in his trying to find Father Andrews killer. Since he refused to play along with the theory that it all was an affair between two men that, when exposed, went terribly wrong!It's then that the movie starts to backtrack in a number of clues that both the police and Father Daniel overlooked.***SPOILERS*** These clues point directly to Mrs. Gallagher who rented the parish to the church that Father Andrews was the pastor of! It was Mrs. Gallagher's un-Catholic like ways of doing business with the people, mostly teenagers runaways and drug addicts, of the St. Dominic Parish that eventually set the stage not only for the murder of Eric Hallaron and Father Andrews but herself as well!Somewhat predictable ending with the killer suddenly coming out of the shadows as his identity, which was not that much of a surprise, was about to be exposed. One thing you have to say in the killers favor is that he unwittingly prevented Father Daniel from betraying the late Father Andrews in him breaking his voes of confession. Even though at the time Father Andrews had absolutely no idea that he was breaking them!

I'm a fan of Christian Slater and was pleasantly surprised to find this movie to be entertaining, fast-moving, and incredibly suspenseful. At the beginning the plot seems boring and contrived, but the great directing, decent acting, and wonderful cinematography brings this movie into "I was very entertained" level. I really liked the London location with the Winter setting, as well as the other on location settings that made the film more authentic. There were some parts that seemed very unbelievable, but it didn't distract from the quality of the film. Also, would of liked to see more romance between Daniel and the reporter, his former lover/girlfriend. Overall great movie to see on a rainy day or weeknight.

I agree with much of what has been said about Slater's career as of late and also hope that he returns to making interesting films.This film, however, was not.Spoilers begin: Red herrings were not: Did the priest do it protect his "other" life? Was it the spooky guy at the gay Catholic support group/mass? Was it the abusive head of the children's shelter? Was it the kids from the shelter pulling a "Primal Fear - Ed Norton" twist? It was none of these and it was the most obvious candidate for anyone who has ever watched one of these formulaic thrillers. There are only two "name" actors in the entire film, and one of the two is cast in an unimportant, unassuming role. Hmmmm. Are we supposed to be shocked when it's this actor? In all, the acting was fine, but there was very little character development and almost no tension.Watch it on the weekend, after lunch on a cold day with a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. Then promptly forget it.