The Rosary Murders

Though not as riveting as its premise will have you believe, The Rosary Murders still manages to deliver moments of tension & suspense within a monotonously executed drama and is anchored by Donald Sutherland's measured performance as a conflicted priest. A run-of-the-mill effort at best when it comes to direction, the story is undone by its long runtime, an unnecessary subplot that goes nowhere & more but the mood & build-up before the serial killings is done well and the dilemma our protagonist faces is rendered with sincerity, along with the conflicted interpretation of Church law & teachings. However, the picture as a whole needed a tightly-edited plot to keep things interesting throughout and carries the look n feel of a TV film in more ways than one.

As slow-burns go, Fred Walton's mysterious catholic-bounded thriller takes the cake with its minimal and sombre treatment. It's one of those progressive and morally hounded plots (from William X. Kienzle's novel), which is a puzzle to decipher, as you find yourself also personally getting involved with the brooding investigation with realistic characters. Some of the scheming is a bit hard to swallow, but for most part it's smartly penned (by Elmore Leonard and Fred Walton) and the low-key approach seems to make you concentrate on the lyrical waxing (especially on those commitments to the priesthood and the self-doubting). However the pacing seemed to plod a bit too much, where some monotonous patches seemed to lose focus. Two stalwart figure heads; an impressive Donald Sutherland and equally so Charles Durning are engagingly strong. Sutherland has a sincere presence about him, that even if he looks half-asleep. He's still watchable. Josef Sommer and Belinda Bauer offer able support. Walton's direction is slickly presented, but feels shapeless and dry. At least he did construct a subtle, startlingly dreary atmosphere and the music score etches out a placidly haunting vibe. The violence happened mostly off-screen, but managed to leave a chilling mark and the Detroit setting complements the weary imprint. A sleepy and glum, but well-acted and rather moving thriller.

I grew up in Detroit, so it's surprising that I've never seen this film. I played college baseball, and one of the guys on our team went to high school at Holy Redeemer (the church in this movie), so it was interesting to me in that way, as I'd never seen this church before.

The thing that bothered me as the movie ended is why the killer was killing Catholic priests and nuns. Maybe it was there and I missed it, but the end of the movie left me thinking "why?". After watching the whole movie, I felt let down at the ending.

Father Koesler (Sutherland) seemed to me to be less than devoted to his calling. Why did he break Catholic rules and baptize a baby born out of wedlock? Whether or not that's a good rule, he is required to abide by it, not pick and choose which he'll obey and which he'll ignore. And why did he break into someone's house? Why would a priest commit a felony?

I'm considering re-watching this film to see if I missed a few things.

Murder mysteries generally speaking are criminal fantasies, outside of those based on real-life or so-called true crime. "The Rosary Murders" is based on a neo-noir novel by William X. Kienzle who was a real catholic priest. The story involves a series of murders associated with people in the catholic church, some laymen/laywomen while others are clergy. The murderer leaves behind a rosary. Donald Sutherland plays Father Koesler, a sort of priest-turned-detective. Also, at one point, the murderer confesses to the Koesler and he has to decide if he should break the church law of keeping confession confidential.

Typically, civilians outside of law enforcement are not supposed to engage in their own investigations of a crime being handled by the police. However in this story Father Koesler is given a lot of leeway to explore the case and interview witnesses. It turns out there's a backstory involving a nun who has entered into a cloistered convent where she has taken vows of silence. Koesler realizes she knows something crucial to the case.

Overall, I didn't find this film very entertaining. It was interesting, but also very gruesome and the overall feel was almost so real it was verging on not being terribly entertaining. Strangely films like "The Silence of the Lambs", though gruesome, are compelling from beginning to end. I didn't find that true with this film. Compelling but not really entertaining, and if it's not entertaining, what's the point?

Donald Sutherland plays Father Robert Koesler, a priest in Detroit who hears the confession of a murderer who is going around offing various priests and nuns. After doing some amateur sleuthing, Koesler figures out who the killer is. But he's bound by church law to say nothing. His superiors - among them, the hard nosed, conservative Ted Nabors (Charles Durning) - believe that nothing can violate the sanctity of the confessional. So, as you can guess, Koesler is a very troubled man. Koznicki (Josef Sommer), the detective on the case, is not as concerned with the rules of the Catholic church, aiming to catch himself a killer.

This sure sounds like a neat premise for a thriller, but on the whole the story isn't told in a particularly interesting way. The subplot of a potential romance, between Koesler and Pat Lennon (a reasonably appealing Belinda Bauer), really doesn't add anything to the material. Fred Walton ("When a Stranger Calls" '79, "April Fool's Day" '86) directs with competence and gives the proceedings a very somber quality. On location shooting ("The Rosary Murders" was actually filmed in Detroit) helps a bit, although the story doesn't exactly hold any surprises. (The killer turns out to be a truly disgusting piece of work.) That's too bad, considering that the two credited screenwriters are director Walton and the great author Elmore Leonard. There is a moment around the one hour mark that struck this viewer as simply too hard to swallow.

There are some solid actors and familiar faces among the cast: Anita Barone, Rex Everhart, Stefan Gierasch, Tom Mardirosian, Mark Margolis, James Murtaugh, Lupe Ontiveros, Addison Powell. But the movie is anchored the most by Sutherland, who plays Koesler as an easygoing, likable chap with a fairly progressive and compassionate attitude.

He and Durning manage to make this worth seeing.

Six out of 10.