Movie Review:
The
Apostle
Review by Katharine
E. Monahan Huntley
Robert Duvall is
the driving force behind this film--he became a high roller to play
a holy roller. Written, directed, and financed by the man, he is Sonny,
the main character, an apostle of God undermined by
his own human frailties.
As a character study,
the story is compelling--yet marred by what appears to be self indulgence.
It simply seems to trail on for far too long. A well defined story
limit is absent.
Sonny is a Pentecostal
minister with a weakness for women. He battles between evangelizing
and wreaking his own kind of vengeance. Ousted from his congregation
and betrayed in marriage, he cold cocks his wife's lover and goes on
the lam to avoid the ramifications of his actions and to seek redemption.
In the course of
his travels and spiritual renewal, there is no indicator of what will
bring this story to an end--dissipating tension necessary to keep an
audiences' interest. It may be in real life that options are unlimited
for our souls to be saved (or not), however, in a story, the number
of alternatives possible to determine the main character's resolve is
required. In the film, the optionlock is present, but is not touched
upon with enough emphasis or frequency to allow the audience to ready
itself for the story's climax.
Attending The Apostle,
you are in the thrall of the all powerful (certainly the all mighty
actor, Duvall), but you may find yourself fidgeting like a child in
church wondering when Hallelujah! it's over.
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