Ignacio de Loyola

This could've been great. The early life of Ignatius of Loyola - soldier, sinner, saint, founder of the Jesuits - has all the makings of a gripping drama. Instead, we get two hours of mood lighting, overlong monologues, and a lead actor trying to carry a film that keeps dropping the cross.

Andreas Muñoz, intense and mostly alone on screen, does his best with a wobbly script. We meet Iñigo (his pre-saint name) as a minor noble turned frat boy: drinking, whoring, and stabbing Frenchmen. Then comes the obligatory cannonball-to-the-leg moment, followed by an extended "spiritual recovery" montage that feels like a pilgrimage in real time.

Eventually, he swaps his sword for sandals and sets off to preach. Along the way, he's thrown in jail by the Spanish Inquisition for being a little too into Jesus. Cue a painfully long CGI "spiritual battle" atop a digital mountain that looks like it came free with Windows XP.

For a low-budget film, it's baffling that they blew their money on this absurd scene instead of tightening the story. After more theological chit-chat, Iñigo is released and heads to France to start the Jesuit order. Inspiring, I suppose, if you're not already asleep.

It's not the worst saint biopic ever made, but it's close. Disappointing.

Rich guys "leaving" their riches to "become poor" are all frauds: their self-inflicted poverty is a show they put on to get powet using the misery of the actual poor, who, unlike them, cannot switch off their poverty at will and return to a life of confort, freedom and influence.

What they should rather do is actually give away money and then use their power to enable others to be self-sufficient in business and politics, to find their voice and the strength to do something of value.

But, from Buddha to Loyola and to Bush, the fraud has been consistent and consistently told by corrupt prophets, media and film people. Don't be fooled you too.

This film-story of St. Ignacio de Loyala's life and discernment of his career goals is very significantly presented and very well directed and acted. I felt myself fully absorbed in the viewing of a first screening for a private audience - I only wish I could gather more such viewers to re-view it, again and again, because as a career seeker myself and a career counsellor it is most inspiring. I'd like to pause the play function at times so that I could reflect longer on what it shows, and reflect together with other Christians on the message it carries for my life and those who like me who know that throughout one's life when winds of change happen, even those we think at times God should not have allowed others to interfere in - which leave our career plans practically capsized, or leave us with disabilities - we can still with God's grace somewhere rely on our renewed freedom in Christ, to correctly seek right authority to help us correct the set of our sails and our steps to do His Holy Will.

The Father and the Son are the Parents of the Holy Spirit, if many churches are correct. The Trinity is a Family-- two Parents and a Progeny, if many churches are correct. In the Book of Job which is part of the bible, the Lord is compared to a father and also a mother with a womb. "From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens"--Job 38:29. Saying that the "Father and the Son are the Parents of the Holy Spirit" is simply another way of saying that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son" which has been official Catholic Church teaching for centuries. According to the Catholic Church, the Son is begotten from the Father. If this is true, the Father is the Father (Parent) of the Son. According to the Church, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. If this is true, the Father and the Son are the Parents of the Holy Spirit. Of course, the scriptures are vague if the Holy Spirit is the 3rd or 1st or 2nd Person of the Trinity--whichever of these is true, the First Person and the Second Person may be the Parents of the Third. Parent definition 1a from Merriam-Webster dictionary: one that begets or brings forth offspring.

The most earnest moment in Ignacio De Loyola comes from a scene where the eponymous saint asks a prostitute to visualize God sat on an empty chair and think of the things that He would say to her. She replies with:, "He doesn't care who I was or where I've been, He only cares where I'm going." And in those words, the essence of the film is captured – no one is too far gone in God's eyes. Just like a sword forged in fire, St. Ignatius is hammered with blows of misfortunes that disguise as a trajectory towards his greatest achievement – The Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Paolo Dy's Ignacio De Loyola humanizes a saint's life beyond a piece of a holy statue. It works as an invitation to examine oneself, a challenge to "set the world on fire" with God's fervor.

Born into a regal and wealthy family, Iñigo López de Loyola (Andreas Muñoz) is a proud Spanish knight who draws chief delight in his military profession, a young man who pursuits a life of fame and vanity. Instead of earning his desire for a hero's death during a battle in Pamplona, he ends up crippled when a French cannonball shatters his right leg. Boredom and frustration starts to seep through his soul in a way pain does to one's body so he forces himself to read the books he has at hand: The Life of the Christ and The Lives of the Saints. After a spiritual calling compels him to live a life bound by the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, he is faced with allegations of blasphemy, and plagued by his inner demons, which he has to conquest as he tries to listen to the voice of God.

Dy and his wife Cathy Azanza's script exudes some flashes of brilliant poetry. It even surprises with a handful moments of humor and some lines which I hope are inspired by Sun Tzu's Art of War. (one of which is "If your enemy is angry, then you have already won.") However, it has the tendency to oversell its message that at times the dialogues seem to be mere discussions of theology. The excessive third person narrations are also occasionally distracting. Narrations like "Iñigo dons his new armor, he opens the door…" assumes that the audience is blind to acknowledge what is happening on-screen. It is squandering Muñoz, who is already an excellent actor, for the script to spell out his every single emotion.

While it is a smart choice to focus on a certain phase in Iñigo's life – his conversion from being a sinner to a saint – the film is yearning for a more solid story. The first half has a slow pace and you can tell it as the days are evidently passing by. As the story trudges along Iñigo's early life as a soldier, his conversion, his Spiritual Exercises and his encounter with The Inquisition, the plot structure suddenly looks strange when it gets to the blood-curling climax which actually happens on a flashback (or is it a dream sequence? I'm confused up till now). The story doesn't really need to be that linear, however, the over-reliance on flashbacks breaks the emotional momentum when it gets back to the present.

While Dy's efforts to handle such a gargantuan religious biopic occasionally fall apart, Ignacio De Loyola manages to deliver its greatest gift to its audience – the deep understanding for discernment. Our souls are continually drawn into two directions: towards goodness and towards sinfulness but if we peel away the many layers of our desires, fears and ambitions, we'll find God there. Hence, every word and every action should be done for His greater glory. The analogy of the Ignatian spirituality and watching a movie is really not that hard to follow. In the cinemas, you will be faced to choose between the two: a mainstream film or a religious film full of philosophical and theological substance.

Full review: http://www.filmpolicereviews.com/reviews/ignacio-de- loyola