ANTONIA BIRD

Bil’s rating (out of 5):   BB.5. 

United Kingdom, 1994.  British Broadcasting Corporation, Miramax, Polygram Filmed Entertainment.  Screenplay by Jimmy McGovern.  Cinematography by Fred Tammes.  Produced by George Faber, Josephine Ward.  Music by Andy Roberts.  Production Design by Fred Tammes.  Costume Design by Jill Taylor.  Film Editing by Susan Spivey.  

Linus Roache is excellent in the lead role of this British drama that features bad lighting and grimy-looking sets. He’s a Catholic priest who is extremely devoted to his work but has difficulty reconciling his homosexuality with the dogma of his faith. He also has personal conflicts that arise when his parishioners confess tragic secrets about their lives that he can’t avoid getting involved in. The film deals with some serious issues—after all, no one is going to take on thousands of years of religious history and get away with it—and for the most part deals with them well. In the end, however, it just doesn’t feel as important a movie as it should. Features supporting performances by Tom Wilkinson as a sympathetic priest who befriends Roache, and Robert Carlyle as a bar pickup with whom he ends up having a possibly serious romance.