Priest abuse movie strikes perfect balance
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Where do you start when making a film about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church?
The first and most important step is to focus on what not to do:
Don’t sensationalize.
Don’t exploit.
Don’t be too heavy-handed.
Director Dan Curtis and screenwriter Thomas Michael Donnelly hit all the right notes in “Our Fathers,” a fact-based dramatization of the scandal that surfaced in the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002.
The two-hour movie premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday on Showtime.
It’s a film everyone should see for the simple reason that pedophilia in Boston and elsewhere had been covered up for so long. It’s an honest look not only at the abuse, but also at the result – the lives of grown men that were tainted and shattered.
With the solemnity and spectacle of Pope John Paul II’s death and the election of his successor, it’s easy to forget the dark cloud that was cast over the church just three years ago.
The film brings the issue back into the spotlight where it needs to be – not simply to rehash old problems, but to solve them.
Cardinal Bernard Law, who was widely seen as the one responsible for the coverup in Boston, resigned in late 2002 but was given a ceremonial post overseeing one of the four major basilicas in Rome a couple of years later. He also led a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica following the pope’s death.
“Our Fathers,” which is based on a 650-page book by former Newsweek investigative editor David France, tells the story in an engaging way.
The stories are raw and disturbing – the victims, in fact, insisted that their real names be used in the film.
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian is played by Ted Danson, who perfectly balances the essence of the lawyer who represented many victims of the Rev. John J. Geoghan. Danson keeps his character believable.
He’s a small-time lawyer with a staff of two employees and late payments on his office lease. While it would be easy to chalk up Garabedian’s motivation to money – and Danson occasionally allows that feeling to percolate – he pulls you right back every time you’re on the verge of disliking him.
Garabedian unravels the mystery and ultimately finds evidence that Cardinal Law knew about priests’ abuses for nearly two decades before they came to light. Instead of removing the culprits, Law moved them to other churches where they continued to abuse boys.
Law is played by Christopher Plummer, who masters the role and taps into the sense of guilt that we’d expect Law to have felt while still clinging to the notion that he was doing what he thought was best.
The man seems genuinely torn between his sense of duty to protect the church, and the havoc that his actions wreaked on innocent boys.
Lurking in the background is the Rev. Dominic Spagnolia, captured admirably by Brian Dennehy, who is an outspoken priest in the Boston diocese.
He denounces the actions in sermons and it is later revealed that he had a homosexual affair during a hiatus from the priesthood. Spagnolia is eventually forced to leave the church.
But the film is not a simple condemnation of the pedophilia or the church’s views on homosexuality. It’s an indictment of the unrealistic standards placed on priests.
In a flashback sequence at St. John’s Seminary in 1962, Spagnolia’s friend, Billy, who would eventually leave the priesthood, laments the burden and foreshadows its ultimate consequences.
“We can’t read newspapers, we can’t listen to music, we can’t talk about sex – definitely can’t talk about sex,” Billy says. “How are we supposed to help people in a world we know nothing about?”
There’s a question that still has no answer.
Columnist Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
