Catechism

Rating: Null/10 (21 June 2009)

Boy, is this movie confused or what? Almost a movie of two halves, and like all such movies doomed to have one half weighed against the other, a case where neither half wins but both lose, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD begins as a sort of southern Gothic reverie not unlike Charles Laughton's iconic NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. A pervading atmosphere you can almost smell of hot wet summer nights and a sense of childlike wonder and mystery, that uncanny ability of children to find the macabre in the ordinary, the fantastical in the mundane, which we all return to again and again in our creative moments as adults; this, I think is Mockingbird's biggest asset, its charm and beauty. Not the courtroom scene that hijacks the movie halfway through, not the subplot of racism and smalltown bigotry in a rural Southern community and not even Gregory Peck (whom I find almost unbearable). The real stars here are the children.
I have no doubt in my mind that at some not so distant point, the movie was not only educational but important. The message still is. But, having progressed thankfully to the point where racism should really be a non-issue (although often it's not), Atticus' catechism in the courtroom seems to be stating the obvious. That it's not exactly layered throughout the movie, that the movie itself makes such an about-turn when it enters the courtroom, makes it stand out like a sore thumb. As a reminder of what were and could be again, no doubt it's still relevant. But in the context of a dramatic movie it is a bit of a false note.
We're lucky then that the movie reverts back to the great first half for its climactic conclusion. I haven't read the book to know how well the story works there as a whole, but this seems to me like a missing opportunity. The world of the adults seems awfully uninvolving compared to that of the children, the one full of magic and possibility. Maybe contrasting the two was kind of the point.