New York City. Governor Angela Porra signed the first gay marriage law, and now intends to adopt another one, allowing for late-term abortions. Due to this, Bishop Reginald Roland decides to publicly excommunicate her from the Catholic church, which causes a lot of media attention. Angela's associates back her, including Nico, a gay Jewish man. The Roman Catholic church nullifies Reginald's excommunication. Years later, Angela is President and goes to visit Reginald in a small parrish. She confesses that she had a miscarriage, while he confesses a murder when he was in the Vietnam War.
Michael Ricigliano's feature length debut film, independent drama "Godless" follows the interwoven political and religious life typical for the USA, though it is less relevant for today's time than it would have been had it been released 50 years earlier, when the influence of religious figures was stronger. Despite an interesting concept of a Bishop, Reginald, excommunicating politician Angela for adopting gay marriage law and attempting to adopt abortion laws, the storyline doesn't really know what to do with this premise. Not much changes, and in the end there is no real pay-off. There is only one intriguing little moment that captures the viewers' attention: the one where Angela is in the church and wants to get the Communion, but the priest refuses to give her the host, and covers the chalice with his hand, forcing her to leave while the other attendees just observe this. Other than that, the movie is just standing on the same place, without much creativity or higher amplitude of events, yet it offers a few philosophical contemplations about religion and politics, and which side has more leverage, whereas it has a great cinematography. In one such contemplation, a politician at a private conference tells to Angela: "We are just a litmus test for the catholic church to see if their base will vote", whereas in another Reginald calls her one of those "cafeteria Catholics". A fresh scene also shows up when Angela is about to meet Reginald, so she has this exchange with her cynical associate Nico: "Please, don't be an a***" - "I'll try". The two actors Anna Ortiz and Harry Lennix are excellent, delivering strong performances from pale, underwritten roles, sometimes even going beyond what is expected and pronouncing their bland dialogue with such an enthusiasm as if it is the best thing ever. "Godless" will be more interesting for American viewers than universal audience, since its story is thin and doesn't have a clear point at the end, yet it offers food for thought.
Grade:++
No comments:
Post a Comment