Adapted from a stage play of the same name, this under-the-radar mid-1980s film about the heated seminarian politics of the Catholic priesthood would never be made today (unless lapsed Catholic Paul Schrader could be persuaded to helm it).
Of course, this story about warring faiths and creeping secularism in the priesthood would probably have never made it to celluloid had it not been for the dream-team casting coup that sees Jack Lemmon taking on the lead role of Father Farley, the Mercedes-driving deacon whose erosion of faith in religious order has led to his Sunday sermons resembling something like an amateur night club comedy act.
Just as much the casting triumph, on the more conservative end of the religious spectrum, there’s Farley’s clamped-down, by-the-book nemesis, played by the late great Charles Durning. Driving a further wedge between these two ecclesiastic enemies is feisty young Mark Dolson, played by virtual unknown Zeljko Ivanec, who turns up to the seminary school a wet-behind-the-ears disruptive force demanding a shot at the priesthood. We eventually learn about a few potentially controversial secrets about his past sexuality, although his apparent willingness to take the obligatory vow of celibacy has Farley convinced of his merits.
Lemmon, for his part throughout, does his best impression of . . . Jack Lemmon. In fact, in some ways he’s just Harry Stoner (Lemmon’s ethically compromised burnt-out sweatshop manager in 1974’s Save the Tiger) in a priest’s frock. More than a few lines of Farley’s cynical sense of humor recall Stoner’s world-weary outbursts fighting against his own nihilistic demons; “I can see why you want to be a priest—why?— because you’re a lunatic!” he says at one point to the crazymaking Dolson. The coup de grace comes when he explains to the idealistic Dolson why his sermons have had to essentially become a thinly veiled vaudeville act: “It’s no secret why the collection comes after the sermon—it’s like a Nielsen rating!”
On the one hand, beyond the confrontational generation gap tug-of-war between Farley and Dolson, there’s an emotional connection and respect forged between pupil and teacher. Yet this is somehow the least convincing element of the film. The bolder elements of the script come through the provocatively questioning nature at the film’s heart, which tries to envision a new spark of progressivism and reform in the Catholic Church that might have been rampantly provocative had it found an audience at all. Recommended for drama and broad-minded religious film collections.
Discover more titles in our list of drama films and list of religion films.