Three Christs

"Three Christs" was a last minute choice of mine at the TIFF. As a big Dinklage's fan, and considering that it was a world premiere, it was easy enough to go check it out. I'm glad I did. This movie is one about the brain and its struggles, but it does so with a big heart. It's funny and touching with a good balance, and the acting is top notch (I'm actually a bigger Dinklage's fan after the movie). The underlying themes about psychiatry as science and its potential negative effect on personality, the nature of identity, the complex interaction of desire and fear are inhabiting the film and are as relevant today as they were at the time. In summary, a great entertaining movie with a deeper layer... and a stellar Dinklage!

I rated this so high because I work in mental health and it connects with me but to the everyday person I would say allow this film to unfold, it has very believable character performances which are easy to follow and as the film progresses you become attached to

Greetings again from the darkness. Based on the actual events documented in the book "The Three Christs of Ypsilanti" by Social Psychologist Milton Rokeach, the film turns ground-breaking work from 60 years ago into a generic, somewhat bland big screen production ... albeit with a talented cast. Director Jon Avnet (FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, 1991) co-wrote the script with Eric Nazarian, and they evidently believed the strong cast would be enough. Instead, we get what in days past would have been described as the TV movie of the week.

The actual story is quite interesting. Dr. Alan Stone (the dramatized version of Dr. Rokeach) is played here by a blond-haired Richard Gere. Dr. Stone comes to Michigan's Ypsilanti State Hospital in 1959 to study delusions of schizophrenics. Up to that time, we are informed that only extreme treatments were utilized, with minimal psychoanalysis practiced. Dr, Stone's approach is through therapeutic treatments. Specifically, he arranges for group therapy consisting of only three patients - each who claims to be God/Christ. Leon (Walton Goggins) demands to be addressed as God. He is the most perceptive of the three, though it's quite clear, he mostly wants a friend. Joseph (Peter Dinklage) says he is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, though he speaks with a British accent, listens to opera, and wants only to return to England (a place he's never been). Clyde (Bradley Whitford) claims to be Christ "not from Nazareth", and he spends much of each day in the shower attempting to scrub away a stench that only he can smell.

The film is at its best, and really only works, when the doctor and the three patients are in session. It allows the actors to play off each other, and explores the premise of how they go about working through the confusion of having each believe the same thing ... while allowing Dr Stone's approach to play out. Where things get murky and clog up the pacing are with the number of additional characters who bring nothing of substance to the story. Stone's wife Ruth (Julianna Margulies in a throwaway role) pops up periodically with alcoholic tendencies or a pep talk for hubby. Stone's young research assistant Becky (Charlotte Hope, "Game of Thrones") seems to be present only as an object of desire for all the Gods, and to remind us of the era's drug experimentation. And beyond those, Stone carries on a constant battle with hospital administrators played by Kevin Pollack, Stephen Root, and a rarely-seen-these-days Jane Alexander (we shouldn't forget she's a 4-time Oscar nominee).

Alec Baldwin's "I am God" from MALICE is still the best, but it's always fun to watch a God complex ... and this film offers four. The story is bookended with Dr Stone dictating his preparatory notes for a hearing on his professional actions, and the film does serve as a reminder that electroshock therapy and severe drug therapy are likely not as effective as empathy for many patients. It's rare that God, Freud and Lenny Bruce are all quoted in the same film, but mostly this one just never pushes far enough.

(Richard Gere,Kevin Pollak, Peter Dinklage and Jon Avnet... Dream team)

"How can you soar when you have no arms? And to think I was chosen to save you."

Jon Avnet's 'Three Christs' is so powerful, comedic and touching that it's easy to forget how outlandish the situation is on the surface: based on a real life experiment, a psychiatrist in the '50s is tasked with finding a new way to treat three separate paranoid schizophrenics, all of whom are convinced that they're the real Jesus Christ and the other two are imposters. As the trial goes on, the four begin to form a close, connective bond while higher ups at the mental institution threaten to shutter the program for good, eradicating all progress and signs of humanity being displayed.

I thought the film flowed so beautifully, incredibly poignant in its storytelling and it really makes you grieve and smile as the characters build chemistry and relationships. The cast up and down is simply fantastic, with special highlights from the Three Christs (Walton Goggins, Peter Dinklage and Bradley Whitford), Richard Gere as the lead psychiatrist running the experiment, Stephen Root and Kevin Pollak as his superiors, and Charlotte Hope, who plays Gere's budding college intern and has a particularly emotional bond with one of the three eponymous men. Their performances are incredibly strong and really know how to tug at the heartstrings, especially in the final 20 minutes of the film.

Unfortunately, the film is a victim of some crucial scene cutting, particularly when it comes to Julianna Marguiles' scarcely seen wife, who apparently has a bit of a drinking problem out of the blue over halfway into the film. A bit more development might've gone a long way, even if Gere's family takes a backseat in most sections. The film's weightier themes also could've been a lot more interesting to see explored further, considering the tug of war that exists between psychotherapy/new forms of getting to know such a curious mind and restoring to electric shock therapy and killing someone's real self with drugs. Instead, they're much more civilian topics here, never reaching the heights and debates they could, even though it's hinted at.

Still, this film really touched me, I found it as pleasant and smile-inducing as I did thought-provoking and devastatingly sad. It's certainly a niche film, based off a psychiatric study that's even more niche, but the performances and raw humanity of the film really help bring it to life and make it worth your time and emotional dedication.

Milton Rokeach was an American social psychologist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s worked in a Michigan mental institution and devised an approach to study three different men, each who claimed to be the real Jesus Christ. His approach was to put the three men together and have sessions, eliminating their contact with other patients.

The movie is less of a biography and more of a dramatization of what all went on. Richard Gere is in the role of the doctor, and they changed his name to Dr. Stone. Truthfully the movie moves pretty slowly most times and I can understand that some viewers might become bored and abandon the viewing. My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library and found it worthwhile. All the actors, most very accomplished, are uniformly good in their roles.

This is just a well-made movie of a curious chapter in human psychology.