| Review |
Christian-themed movies are certainly getting to be a strange breed, as makers looking to vary them up a bit venture into odder and odder territory. A few weeks ago the Fox Faith brand released “Thr3e,” the weird (and horrible) psychological thriller that claimed to have some religious message but came across just like any rotten secular example of the genre. Now the same outlet offers “The Last Sin Eater,” a poverty-row production that does have an overt conversion message but is mostly a curious tale of nineteenth-century backwoods cultism. It’s perversely fascinating as a cultural document, but as a movie it’s simply dreadful.
The protagonist of the tale, based on a book by Francine Rivers, is ten-year old Cadi Forbes (Liana Liberato), a member of a Welsh immigrant community that’s settled in the Appalachians. Governed by a brutal autocrat named Brogan Kai (Stewart Finlay-McLennan), the group is basically pagan, though there are suggestions that at some point they were at least introduced to Christianity, and they’ve selected one of their number (Peter Wingfield) to serve as their sin-eater, a person compelled to live a solitary life in the wild, returning only upon the death of locals in order to take their sins upon himself and thus “save” them. Cadi learns of his existence after the death of her beloved grandmother, and wracked with guilt because she’s convinced that she caused the death of her younger sister, she decides to seek him out for “absolution.” The effort brings her into contact with an outcast woman (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick), who—as it turns out—was once the sin-eater’s fiancJe, as well as Fagin (Soren Fulton), Brogan’s son, who becomes her confederate. And as if that weren’t enough, a young angel (Thea Rose) is also involved.
More importantly, in the course of their search the youngsters encounter a Christian missionary called only “The Man of God” (Henry Thomas, much grown from “E.T.”), and are immediately taken by his message. That brings conflict with the cruel Brogan, who, it’s eventually revealed, has his own reasons for wanting to maintain the old sin-eater cult. But, of course, in the final analysis the Christian message cannot be suppressed: Jesus, everybody learns, is the only real sin-eater.
As a cinematic enterprise “The Last Sin Eater” is pretty pathetic. The acting is mediocre, even though you have to give points to the youngsters for attempting their accents; even the best-known cast member, Louise Fletcher, looks flustered and lost as Miz Elsa, an old lady who knows the most tightly guarded secrets about the foundation of their community. And technically the picture at best has the quality of a threadbare cable TV movie. The Utah locations are fairly attractive, but Robert Seaman’s cinematography is no better than workmanlike, and under flaccid direction (by Michael Landon, Jr., who also edits, prosaically) things never really catch fire.
But what’s really unconvincing about the picture is its portrayal of the process of conversion. I leave it to others more theologically adept to discuss the doctrinal issues involved. What’s dramatically disastrous is the ease with which character after character—Cadi, Fagin, Miz Elsa, and slews of others (apart from Brogan, of course)—immediately react positively to the mere mention of Jesus’ name. That’s not just implausible; it makes the whole message the picture’s trying to convey simple-minded. And it’s only one of the many clumsy turns the script takes, the other notable example being the rationale that’s finally revealed for Brogan’s incorrigible resistance to Christianity.
The old Celtic tradition of sin-eating is actually an interesting subject that theoretically could provide the premise for a intriguing film. But the dreadful Heath Ledger thriller “The Order” certainly didn’t fill the bill, and neither does this presumably sincere but equally awful effort. If past history is any indication, it might indeed be good if this was in fact the last “Sin Eater” movie. |
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