Customer Reviews

Judgment

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very important work, dealing with the troubling and sensitive subject of sexual abuse--within the church. This was a courageous drama, and everyone involved in the making of this film is to be commended for tackling not only a disturbing subject, but the controversy which occurs when the perpetrator of sexual abuse is a trusted religious figure. Thank you, to the makers of this film. Anyone needing affirmation, who has suffered abuse themselves or is acquanted with an abuse survivor, should view this film.

I missed this movie when it originally aired on HBO. When I found out it is still in print, I purchased it. I bought it from an independent seller through Amazon because it was cheaper, even when shipping was taken into account.

Basically, the plot is people find out one of the priests is a pedophile. The parents do not know what to do. Some of them come together and seek an attorney's advice. Blythe Danner's character only wants the Priest (David Strathairn) to leave the priesthood and have the church pay for her son's psychological care. The Catholic Church offers to pay a large sum of money but does not admit guilt and refuses to excommunicate the priest. Of course, Blythe Danner and Keith Carradine's family do not take the money. The other families are upset and think they are holding out for more money, which is not true. Blythe goes to the Archdioscese and makes her simple request known. The Church does not care. They go to court. Her family receives millions of dollars.

I believe this film is from the early 1990s and this case was one of the first to be made public before the Catholic Church Scandals became as bad as it did in the 2000s.

With that being said, the acting is superb. All the actors became the characters. David Strathairn made me think he was a pedophile for real. No wonder he was an Academy Award nominee ("Good Night and Good Luck"). Keith Carradine is good no matter what character he is portraying. If you watch "Criminal Minds" and saw his acting there, it was excellent. I think his talent was wasted on "Numb3rs." Blythe Danner was good and I could finally see her daughter's (Gwyneth Paltrow) resemblance to her. Gywneth is not as good of an actress as Blythe. David Faustino's brother (I forgot his name) gave an excellent performance and I wanted to cry for him. There were other well-known celebrities in the film as well.

I think everyone should see this. I think this should be shown in schools as part of sex education. Children need to know that just because an adult has power over you and says "this is our little secret" does not make it right. God does not want to rape you.

I hope this review encourages you to purchase this film. If not from Amazon, then from someone else.

I have been looking for this movie for years. I looked under the wrong heading.I thought I would find it under homosexuality in priest. I finally found it by watching the BOURNE trilogy. I remember the actor vividly. David Strahrain. I bought today.

I enjoyed this movie because it was well written, directed, and acted, and also had an important message related to child sexual molestation by priests in the Catholic Church. The movie showed the Church's selfish, devious, manipulative, controlling, and deceptive tactics--to keep its image of pure and perfect at any cost. It also showed how innocent children can so easily be manipulated by priests into satisfying the priest's pedofilic desires, and how the children can be scarred for life, notwithstanding large monetary settlements and imprisoned priests.

However, the movie had one blatent flaw--it lacked a climax. The author had a mock trial take place in the lawyer's office; then in the next scene we saw the child actually sit in the court witness box. End of movie, save for a written message at the bottom of the screen informing the viewer how the story was resolved--the priest's and the Church's punishments.

I felt cheated by this ending. A real courtroom drama ending was necessary, showing both the inner and outer battle the molested child would have to experience on the stand, perhaps almost breaking down under the defense attorney's callous questioning. And there was plenty of time, because during the story, I saw many unnecessary scenes that not only wasted time but were repetitious of scenes that I had already seen.

It was still worth seeing and I commend such courageous, hard-hitting stories.