So Help Me God

In Religulous (VL-2/09), comedian Bill Maher traveled around America to draw believers into conversations that would reveal the foolishness of much, if not all, organized religion. So Help Me God covers a similar journey, but filmmaker Simon Cole is a successful businessman and a nonbeliever who genuinely seeks spiritual fulfillment, looking for God while talking to members of different religious groups. Cole begins his quest with a gag that might put people off (the one about asking a telephone operator for the deity's phone number), but once on the road, his attitude becomes more serious as he engages with Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, Amish, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Sikhs—as well as self-professed “free thinkers.” The range of opinion is naturally wide, with some interviewees rigidly doctrinaire and others extraordinarily broad-minded; and since most are ordinary folk rather than religious scholars, their words don't necessarily carry denominational authority. But whatever camp they fall into, Cole treats them with respect, and they respond to his gentle probing with observations that are revealing and often gently humorous as well. The result is a film that, while focusing on Cole's spiritual search, ably portrays the diversity of religious experience in the U.S. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)