Child of God

Based on Cormac McCarthy's titular 1973 novel, Child of God is set during the 1960s in Tennessee, where Lester Ballard (Scott Haze), a violent, mentally disturbed man, is thrown off the family homestead and becomes a reclusive scavenger, scouring the forest for game. Lester is also a voyeur who likes to watch men and women making love in cars, striking paydirt when he discovers a couple who are dead from carbon monoxide poisoning: Lester takes the woman's corpse to his shed to serve as his permanent “lover.” But after that body is burned, Lester winds up resorting to murder to procure a new one, and eventually he attracts the attention of the local law, along with a bloodthirsty mob. This portrait of a man sinking deeper and deeper into depravity—including necrophilia— is hardly an uplifting story. And yet, McCarthy suggests, Ballard is also—like all of us—a child of God, so how should he be treated? Neither the book nor the film, directed by James Franco, offers an easy answer; both are designed to force us to reach our own conclusions—not a task that many will relish. Franco refuses to soften McCarthy's depiction of Ballard's ugliness while also trying not to repel audiences from the onset. It's a difficult juggling act that results in an ambitious but uneven film, marked by a wild, ferocious performance from Haze. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)