Heartless and demoralizing

Rating: 2/10 (26 October 2003)

I think that who ever signed on to work with this crap must be looking to retire soon. At least, they SHOULD BE after this embarrassment. An extremely implausible plot is only worsened by characters drawn so poorly, you want to vomit.
The story is about how a murder effects three old friends. Unfortunately, we only really feel how it effects one character, Jimmy, the father of the deceased. The other two characters feel to be very contrived, almost as if they are being pulled into the plot against their will. The only emotional connection between these three friends is a traumatic experience they shared in their childhood, which left at least one of the three permanantly scarred. However, as adults, they grew apart, living very different lifestyles.
The fact that one of the "former" friends becomes a suspect in the murder, seeds the inevitable conflict between Jimmy and his old friend. There could be lots of drama and tension built up, but that would actually require the writer to sketch out the relationship between these two characters.

Instead, we are merely left with a did-he-do-it or did-he-not-do-it mystery, which lasts way too long for the little amount of suspense it carries. If he "didn't do it", then we should at least be left with some reason to care who did do it. Maybe, the killer will strike again? No, not likely in this movie (though there will be more than one murder before the curtain closes). And if he did "do it", then we probably don't care anyway, because his character is so inconsistent and vague to begin with.
The reality for the pathetic murder mystery turns out to be so pointless and unbelievable, that all potential dramatic irony gets flushed down the toilet. Then the final sin is committed: we realize that the one decently portrayed character, the one character that we thought we understood in this movie, this loving and compassionate father, is not even who we thought he was. Up to the point where we thought we understood his motives, we leave in bitter disgust. Horrible!
Finally, I do not understand why the movie insists on depicting a stereotypical reference between Catholicism and pedophilia when this has no link to the plot what-so-ever.