Father Tim Farley (Jack Lemmon) is a well loved priest in his church. He is given a month to teach headstrong Mark Dolson (Zeljko Ivanek) on how to tone his anger down and become a priest. He finds out Mark had gay sex before he decided to enter the Church. Unfortunately homophobic Monsignor Thomas Burke (Charles Durning) finds out too and wants him thrown out. Farley wants to stand up for Mark...but can he without getting thrown out himself?
Quite obviously this was a play but it still works. There's nothing great or flashy about the direction but it has a great script and two wonderful performances by Durning and especially Lemmon. I wish I could say the same about Ivanek but he comes across as too angry and stubborn--it seems reasonable that he shouldn't be a priest. Still the issue about how the Catholic church views homosexuality is dealt with in a intelligent manner. As a lapsed Catholic myself I applaud the film for pointing out how biased and ridiculous their view is. I again have to say how good Lemmon is--I don't think this man ever gave a bad performance and he's just perfect here. A few of his discussions with Ivanek are (purposely) very funny. The ending is sort of muted here. They didn't change it from the play but it doesn't hit as hard--they didn't want to depress the audience I guess.
For whatever reason this was barely released in 1984. The studio was probably afraid of the Catholic church condemning it but that actually might have made it more popular! Look at "Hail Mary" or "Last Temptation of Christ". The very few reviews here show that it's still pretty unknown. That's a shame because it's a well-made and thoughtful comedy drama. Well worth catching.
"Mark don't kick a**!" "It's better than kissing it."
Quite obviously this was a play but it still works. There's nothing great or flashy about the direction but it has a great script and two wonderful performances by Durning and especially Lemmon. I wish I could say the same about Ivanek but he comes across as too angry and stubborn--it seems reasonable that he shouldn't be a priest. Still the issue about how the Catholic church views homosexuality is dealt with in a intelligent manner. As a lapsed Catholic myself I applaud the film for pointing out how biased and ridiculous their view is. I again have to say how good Lemmon is--I don't think this man ever gave a bad performance and he's just perfect here. A few of his discussions with Ivanek are (purposely) very funny. The ending is sort of muted here. They didn't change it from the play but it doesn't hit as hard--they didn't want to depress the audience I guess.
For whatever reason this was barely released in 1984. The studio was probably afraid of the Catholic church condemning it but that actually might have made it more popular! Look at "Hail Mary" or "Last Temptation of Christ". The very few reviews here show that it's still pretty unknown. That's a shame because it's a well-made and thoughtful comedy drama. Well worth catching.
"Mark don't kick a**!" "It's better than kissing it."