William Sheridan
Well acted piece that is driven by dialogue, as opposed to action. The other reviews miss the point. Behind the loosely constructed mystery lie question of what it means to lead a worthwhile life. An urbane priest is confronted with the resolve of another priest to preserve to the death the penitent's relationship with god in the confessional. He is a true believer and soldier of Christ.The urbane priest's deep Christian convictions slowly drag him back to his original priestly calling. This journey is made in a very modern believable way, simply and as a matter of factChristian Slater's understated acting is magnificent. Each line delivered realistically while accentuating the emotion behind each line.A low budget gem of a movie.
dbdumonteil
For a non-Canadian viewer,the film might seem weird .Their priests do not look like those of their countries,or maybe this is the movie which makes them look like more like yuppies than men of God.It takes a lot of imagination to believe that Christian Slater,Stephen Rea and even poor Von Flores are clergymen.The movie is actually a whodunit where Slater -who began his career in a monastery (remember "the name of the rose"?)puts on his little act of Hercule Poirot without a mustache .Best performance ,IMHO,comes from Nancy Beatty as the sinister Mrs Gallagher:she particularly shines in the scene where she blames the clergy for their life in luxury.Like this ...try this.....Primal fear (Gregory Hoblit) -much better than "shepherd"!-
PersianPlaya408
Webb's film concerning a priest (Slater) who believes in a young priest who is accused of murder and claims he is innocent. Molly Parker is good as his former love interest/journalist who helps him out. The film is not amazing, it was actually quite lame in some of its cinematic moments, and felt so B-movie-ish. It was entertaining at times, but just too slow and didn't have the directorial flare that a good B movie should have or the quality of an A-movie. This was nowhere near as good as stuff like The Deal (also starring Slater) or even End Game (starring Cuba GOoding Jr.)... the best in this kind of genre is THe Sentinel which was a very good film despite it having a TV-movie like feel to it. THe Confessor is not the worst film, but its a bit worse than your average film so skip it unless you have a lot of time on your hands. IMDb Rating: 5.0, my rating: 6/10
ekrilova
I'm a fan of Christian Slater and was pleasantly surprised to find this movie to be entertaining, fast-moving, and incredibly suspenseful. At the beginning the plot seems boring and contrived, but the great directing, decent acting, and wonderful cinematography brings this movie into "I was very entertained" level. I really liked the London location with the Winter setting, as well as the other on location settings that made the film more authentic. There were some parts that seemed very unbelievable, but it didn't distract from the quality of the film. Also, would of liked to see more romance between Daniel and the reporter, his former lover/girlfriend. Overall great movie to see on a rainy day or weeknight.
AD
