Last Rites

Plot synopsis:
Father Michael is a New York priest with close ties to the Mafia crime syndicate — his father is a don. The priest's brother-in-law Gino, a mafia boss, is murdered while having sex with Angela, a mistress. She narrowly escapes by hiding in a bathroom and locking the door.
Pursued by hitmen, the mistress comes to the priest for confession. She is afraid to go to the police so Father Mike agrees to meet her at her choice of location. A cab driver transports him to a loft apartment, telling him a sorrowful tale of how Angela has helped him and his wife with the grief over losing a young son. Father Mike confronts her about knowing his relationship to Gino. She denies knowing the connection. When the two encounter the hitmen, the priest is wounded and one of the hitmen recognizes Father Mike.
Angela hides in his church. She tells him it was Gino's wife who shot him. Gino is buried, and Father Mike glares across the casket at his sister Zena, having seen her with the hitmen when he was shot. He speaks to his father, who says he expects to lose at his racketeering trial and be sent to prison. The Don tells the priest that his sister wants to run the business, but he has said no since she's a woman. As they leave the cemetery, the hitman tells the Don and Zena that he recognized Michael.
Zena comes to confession and tells Father Mike that she knows of him helping the girl. The priest begins to fall in love with Angela. He meets best friend Nuzo, a detective and godson of his father. Nuzo tells him not to trust her. He tells Mike that Gino gave evidence to a rival crime syndicate, which sealed the Don's fate, in return for 5 million dollars. Nuzo tells him to sit tight while he makes an arrest, but Nuzo is gunned down, dying in Mike's arms.
Father Mike and Angela flee to Mexico, heading for her village. For the first time the priest violates his vows and they have sex. In the morning she is gone. Meanwhile, the Don finds out they are in Mexico and sends Zena to kill the girl. Father Mike races to catch up to Angela, thwarting another hitman along the way. He arrives in the village in time for a festival.
Angela is a fraud who set Gino up and took the money. She is also married to the "cabbie" she sent to pick him up. Now she instructs her husband to kill him. He stops at the festival and Michael spots him. He witnesses the cabbie drive away in the rental car Angela took.
Michael goes to the hotel and finds a surprised Angela. He lies that he loves her and they have sex again. She awakens to see Michael sitting in a chair, staring at her. He stands, walks to the door and leaves her, saying "via con Dios" as he goes. She is stunned to see Zena step through the door. Zena shoots her as Michael continues down the steps past the body of the "cabbie." He gets into a limo and waits for Zena. She sits next to him and says "thank you, brother." He takes her hand and kisses it as they drive away.

Tags: romantic, neo noir, murder

Review:
+MAJOR SPOILERS+ At the start of the movie "Last Rites" Geno, Roberto Corbo, is gunned down in his hotel room by his wife Zena, Anne Twomey, as his lover Angela, Daphne Zuniga, runs for her life and locks herself in the bathroom.
Zena blasting the locked door with a shower of bullets feels that Angela is also dead and leaves.
Later Father Michael, Tom Berenger, who's a priest at New Yorks Saint Patrick's Cathedral takes a confession from non-other then Angela about feeling guilty for the death of her lover Geno.
Geno is Michael's good friend as well as his brother-in-law.
There Angela tells Michael that she had no idea that Geno was still married to Zena Michael's sister.
Now she feels that she'll be killed by Zena's and Micheal's father's Don Carlo, Dean Clark, mobsters for fooling around with Geno.
Michael at first feels that there's more to the story then what Angela is telling him.
Why did she go to him, Zena's brother, of all people to confess about having an affair with his brother-in-law Geno without knowing who he is?
At first when watching the movie "last Rites" it looks like the story of a woman who was cheated on by her husband who then took things into her own hands.
But as the movie moves along you begin to realize that the story is more, far more, then what you at first thought it was.
Michael is smitten by Angel's beauty as well as her vulnerability hides her in his residents at the cathedral with the help of fellow priest Father Freddy, Paul Dooley.
As Michael's father Don Carlo, New York's Boss of Bosses in the Mafia, has his hoods out on the street looking for her.It's obvious that Angela did a lot more damage to Zena and her father that what it seems on the surface in her having an affair with Zena's husband Geno.
Some of the truth comes out later when Michael has a talk with his friend and undercover policemen Nuzo, Chick Vennera.
But before Nuzo can do anything to make Michael see what he's involved in he and his partner are gunned down in an undercover drug bust that tragically backfired.It turns out that Geno was talking to the Feds and gave them enough rope to hang Michael's father Don Carlo.
Geno was also making a deal with the Mannonie family who were trying to unseat or whack Don Carlo and take over his crime empire.
The Mannonie's gave Geno five million dollars with which he and Angela would take off with and never be heard from again.
Also it was Angela who put Geno up to selling out Don Carlo who she later planned to have murdered when they were out of the country and then keep all the money for herself.
Going into town looking for Angela Michael sees Luis the cab driver who took him to Angela's loft in New York.
Going to the house where he saw Luis coming out of Michael finds that Luis and Angela are married and that they played him for a sucker!
The plan was to get Angela out of the country and away from the vengeful Don Carlo and his mob.
Both Louis & Angela are now going to have Michael murdered.
Then with Michael out of the way they'll together live off the money that the Mannonie family paid Geno to sell out Michael's father.
Very confusing movie due to the bad editing and atrocious acting on the part of the beautiful but irritating Daphne Zuniga.
But if you overlook the bad editing and acting and follow the story it's not as bad as most people say it is.
This doesn't mean that "Last Rites" is by any stretch of the imagination a good movie.
Tom Berenger really rises above the material that he's given in the movie with a very sensitive and troubling portrayal of Father Michael.
A man born into the mob who wants to make penance for his father's sins.
Also Tom Berenger shows a very commanding use of the Italian language in the scenes where he speaks it.
But It's the movies bad editing and directing that does it in by muddling the story instead of crystallizing it.
Among the many plot-holes, and there are legions of them, in the movie is the scene in Mexico after Michael finds out about Angela cheating on him as well as setting him up for an assassins bullet.
You see Michael, after praying in the local church, taking off what looks like, I may be wrong, a wedding ring from his finger and sadly dropping it on the ground.
Even though you never saw Michael and Angela get married in the movie for him to have that wedding ring in the first place..
Every New York film cannot be a lasting classic.
Whether you consider it a church film with mafia overtones or a mafia film with church overtones, Berenger's priest shows subtle vulnerability that escalates to overwhelming vulnerability and you have to be curious as to where it will end.
So we have this priest, son of the mafia, who gets involved with this chick.
Not only we have Tom Berenger in top form, the film features Daphne Zuniga (why I had never heard of her before?), and Adrian Paul, way younger and before he put on the Highlander clothes, and in a small role.
The plot is excellent, the performances are great and what to say?
You would think that with the mob, the Catholic church, machine guns, hookers, hit men (and women), full-frontal nudity, screaming inside a church, the lead actress crying that "I'm a whore!", a stuttering priest and a uniformly attractive cast that there'd be a reason to get excited about this thing.
Alas, you'll only be disappointed unless, like me, you want to see it because you've heard only bad.Although it's shot in a made-for-TV style, there a couple of interesting camera shots (set in Mexico) and even a moment or two where there's promise of the story kicking in.
This film has a few things going for it and not much else.
It does have an icy female villain well played by one Anne Twomey, who is now known only for her small part as the NBC exec who put the kibosh on Jerry's sitcom pilot on Seinfeld.
It has the sexiness of Tom Berenger and Daphne Zuniga, but doesn't seem to know what to do with them.
And it has brief full-frontal male nudity by an unknown actor at the beginning, worth a look alone since it happens so rarely in American films.
The rest is not good, but it may be fun to watch just to see how convoluted it gets.
Plus you keep thinking the main actors are going to bare all, but they never really do.
If you wanna see more of Berenger, get At Play in the Fields of the Lord instead.) Sorry to keep dwelling on the nudity, but this is not a film you watch for the plot.Roger Ebert named this as the worst film of 1988 six weeks before the year was up.
She has deserved better, and in fact could be having a Helen Hunt kinda career if she hadn't been cast in films like this.
(Being on Melrose Place probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but not in retrospect.)You can decide for yourself if this film is "so bad it's good" or just bad.
Perhaps it might have been a great cheap Cinemax "erotic thriller" with a controversial priest angle, but at face value it's lame, with a lousy written tough-guy priest character that rings false all the way through it.
Despite every awful review this movie has received -including Roger Ebert ominous one as "the worst movie of 1988"- I loved it when it was first released and I still enjoy it.The plot may be faulty, but the atmosphere is great and the music by Bruce Broughton is -as expected-very good.For me -and many of my(according to what Mr.Ebert could think on this subject) "tasteless" friends, it still remains a cult film to be enjoyed again once in a while.
The naivete of Michael (Tom Berenger) the priest has credibility in terms of his position in his family.
The "finale" with his last phrase and the entrance of his sister Zena (Anne Twomey)and the very last scene at the car with her are simply terrific and impossible to forget no mater how many years have passed..
This film does show Berenger's truly broad range as an actor.
It is one of those movies' that stick with you and kind of "haunt" you, in the very good way of being truly memorable, ultra-sexy and different!
Bellasario's genius is well known now, but was truly evident in this early work of his.50 Shades of Gray has nothing on the raw sexuality displayed so beautifully by Tom Berenger.
My wonderful husband of 30 years has always known that even though Berenger is 16 years my senior, I would have an affair with him in a heart-beat.
The ending of this movie leaves you breathless and yearning for more..
It inexplicably features an Irish dude (Berenger) badly trying to pass for Italian.
The impossibly stick-thin Daphne Zuniga is playing Mexican?
But, you will laugh, and you will laugh hysterically!(did I mention this movie wasn't good?)(1/2* Out of 10 Stars) - of course, IMDb will not let me do 1/2*!.
Priest Father Michael (Tom Berenger) has a father who's the head of one of the families in the Mafia.
Michael protects Angela (Daphne Zuniga) who his father wants dead...and starts to fall in love with her despite being a priest.
Now he's torn between love for his family, love for Angela or love for the church.The story has been done before and there's plenty wrong with it.
For starters Berenger is totally miscast as the priest.
In the right roles Berenger can be good--but not here.
Still it does (somewhat) work.Within the first 5 minutes you have female nudity AND full frontal male nudity (unusual in any Hollywood movie).
Zuniga has about two nude scenes and Berenger shows off his muscular chest.
There's also a wonderful supporting performance by Anne Twomey as Michael's sister Zena.
This is no classic--heck it's not even a good movie--but it's not an utter disaster either.
Ring on Father Michael's finger.
I recently saw this movie for a second time, and noticed that the ring was on his finger at the very beginning.
I think the reason he took off the ring was that he realized he had betrayed the vows he took to the Church.I loved Tom in this movie, but I pretty much love him in everything.
It was interesting to see what a cathedral looks like "behind the scenes".
The plot was implausible, but not as offensive as some would have you believe.Hard to believe that Tom did this movie one year before Major League.
I'm a fan of Tom Berenger, and I'm not alone since he was a great leading man of the late 80s and 90s.
He's younger here, cast as a priest, which stretches credulity a bit, but it's convincingly played and written by someone who clearly had a background in catholicism, which really permeates the entire film.
Berenger being Italian doesn't exactly jibe with reality either, but again, its made plausible.The film has some decent action and surprises, with all the hallmarks of an 80s movie that relies on its plot, characters, some back lot sets, and period grit and debased attitude as well as slightly substandard film stock that still looks great.
There's something about films that used to have to rely on characters and plots because they couldn't afford to blow tens of millions on effects.Regardless, Berenger as a priest, his friends, his awful sister, and his mob family are all played well.
However, when you give it some thought, a convincing rationale can come to mind, one of innocence lost, one in regards to family coming first and the mania of that within the mob taking over even a good son.
There's a real subtext about the good or bad side to women that is taken a bit far, and makes the director/producer seem like a possible misogynist, but maybe that's how life went for him.
Or maybe it's the destiny for Berenger's life as a priest.
Regardless, it's better a film to me than a 5 or even 6.
Bad choice for Mr. Berenger.
A Catholic priest shields a woman from the mob.
And then the priest has more than a passing interest in the damsel in distress.A quick ramble on Berenger: The guy is one of my favorite actors.
Having gotten a good break in the late 70's and early 80's his career was going downhill already by 1986.
To play it safe; Berenger decided to work with established directors to further his career even more.
He worked with Ridley Scott in "Someone to Watch Over Me" in 1987, did a solid film in Roger Spottiswoode's "Shoot To Kill" starring alongside Sidney Poitier and made quite a splash in Costa-Gavra's extreme political thriller "Betrayed" in 1988.To close off 1988 Berenger played the lead in "Last Rites".
I have no idea of Berenger's personal faith and whether he wanted to really stick it to Catholic priests; but I simply don't get what was interesting to begin with in "Last Rites".The film opens well enough.
A super sexy mobster gal, Zena (Anne Twomey), kills her husband (in quite a nasty way) when she catches him bedding another woman, Angela (Daphne Zuniga).
Angela narrowly escapes and shortly thereafter goes to confession in Father Michael Pace's (Berenger) booth.
As fate would have it; Pace is Zena's brother and therefore has direct ties to the mob.
Pace decides to help Angela and keep his family from getting to her.
All the while the mobsters are closing in on them."Last Rites" offers up at least one miserable twist, a hopelessly boring middle section, some pathetic attempts at taking a stab at religion and an ending that takes far too long to reach it's predictable conclusion.
Which is a shame 'cause it starts fairly well.Berenger isn't all that believable as the tortured (and fairly weak minded) priest and Zuniga's legendary bad performance here probably ruined any further chances at a solid acting career.
Anne Twomey easily walks off with the film."Last Rites" probably hurt Berenger's film career.
I don't think it's quite as bad as Roger Ebert labeled it (the worst film of 1988) but it certainly isn't good.
Apart from "Major League" in 1989 and "Sniper" in 1993 (and a personal favorite is "The Substitute" from 1996), Berenger made more bad choices commercially speaking and his film career has never recovered..
This movie is fun.
When the voluptuous horny girl gazes ravenously at the half-clothed Tom Berenger in his chaste, priestly bedroom, he tells her "I can't touch you, I'm a priest." But he doesn't seem to be convincing himself and he certainly isn't convincing her.The movie doesn't take itself seriously, and the story line is insanely convoluted, but if you can't quite make sense of it all, it's still fun.
Highly recommended as a chick flick, but I can understand that anybody who doesn't find a half-naked Tom Berenger sexy might not like the movie.If you're looking for a heart-stopping thriller-mystery, this ain't it.
If you want a good chick-flick drama with a little adultery and a few cold-blooded murders and a totally-unexpected-yet-strangely-satisfying-and-unsettling ending, I recommend Last Rites..
My problem with the film from the beginning was how hard it was to suspend disbelief for a priest like Michael.
There are so many problems with the plot that you can't stop thinking - 'but what about this?' If the beautiful Angela is so incredibly smart where she has set up her scheme with he painter husband to actually end up with the $5 million, then why is she so dumb as to be in the line of fire to be possibly killed by Zena's bullets in the beginning (only escaped by luck) and finally takes one at the end.
A smart girl who knows how to work the mob, and knew Michael was in Geno's family, would have foreseen that.
You watch it because you just know the priest is going to give into temptation and ravage Angela, and so you voyeuristically continue to watch.
Berenger is the "good son" of Mafia Don, Clark.
A girl, Zuniga, rushes into the confessional and admits she was witness to a Mafia killing and is now being hunted by the mob.
The people responsible for the killing are none other than Berenger's own family.
It gets a little complicated here.Berenger decides to help Zuniga escape to her native Mexico rather than turn her over to his own family for execution.
Once across the border, Zuniga seduces Berenger.
Then he discovers that he is the mark in the intricate plot to get Zuniga out of the country.
When she's safe, she tells her real lover to kill Berenger.I'm not sure just what kind of flick this is supposed to be.
And after discovering his betrayal, Berenger far too easily turns from compassionate priest to Judas goat.The acting is barely up to professional standards.
Zuniga is beautiful, lanky, sexy but seems more suited to lighter roles.
Berenger isn't convincing as a priest.
Dane Clark puts in a decent performance but doesn't look quite right for the role and lacks individuality, the way some television actors do, just walking through the part.Whatever conative kinks existed in the minds of the people who produced this, they weren't realized on screen.
Oh, there's a neat scene in which Zuniga slides nudely out of bed, saunters over to the relaxed, alert Berenger, and plants a big smooch on him before undressing him and leading him over to the sack for a hot sex act.