The Penitent Man

If you've seen K-Pax then you'll know what it's like when a film with a great premise and fully committed wonderful actors manages to create a reverse alchemy- a movie which is less than the sum of its parts.

Lance is intense and fascinating to watch as ever, and his face carries the burden of world weary regret wonderfully, but no-one else can quite reach the bar he sets.

The two-handed sessions are interesting, but never quite reach the heights of true insight, being entertaining rather than revelatory.

The main theme of the nature of Fate is fascinating, and the premise sound, but as others have noticed it would have made for a wonderful 30 minutes rather than a rather laborious 90.

Watch it by all means, but see it as a dress rehearsal for a potential classic short film rather than the rather vapid exercise it turns out to be.

This low budget, slow moving movie with many local actors starts with an interesting idea about time travel (easily guessed early on) and stretches it to fill an hour and a half of mostly dialogue and background music. I'm sure everyone earnestly participated and did their best to make this a long shot that would wow the world with the "deep" ideas discussed and the sincere efforts of the "wonderfully talented" writer, director, and cast. It really is mediocre. The interesting part is to read the glowing reviews of all the participants' contributions and the "fabulous" concepts explored by the movie. The praise is so over the top that anyone can see who wrote these reviews. I guess I can't really rely on a film with a score above 7 to be worth checking out. This is the world we live in.

Penitent Man (2010) is a mostly contemporary drama with science fiction notes, in which well-known actors like Lance Henriksen and Andrew Keegan mingle seamlessly with local Seattle talent.

Without giving much of anything away, here's the story: Mr. Darnell (Lance Henriksen) tries to convey an unlikely message to Dr. Jason Pyatt (Lathrop Walker), which could potentially save his marriage, his life, and the lives of billions of people.

There were a couple of elements of this film that stood out for me. The first was the dialog, by which I mean the writing, sound design, and acting. Penitent Man is dialog heavy, but not to a fault. The writing flows with an enjoyable dramatic cadence and the back and forth between characters, especially those who disagree with one another, are captivating to watch and listen to. An aside: Henriksen is not only a good actor, but a great voice talent as well.

The other element of the film that really popped out for me was setting. While the film was shot in a short amount of time, on a small budget, the film manages to create a clear and cogent world, while also highlighting some great places in Seattle that hardly made it into cinema.

Overall I enjoyed the writing, sound/music, and settings of the film, and I felt engaged with the characters. The film was a quality creation and I was left thinking/talking about physics and "what ifs" for a few weeks afterward.

Go watch it already!

The Penitent Man's gripping story defies standard genre categorization and breaks all the "rules," providing viewers with an original and extremely effective take on a classic sci-fi question. The film is driven by stellar performances, especially from the two leads Henriksen and Walker, but The Penitent Man's greatest asset is undoubtedly its director Nicholas Gyeney who managed to make a dialog driven film absolutely thrilling to watch. The film's intimacy allows the audience to share the emotions that play out on screen, creating an intense bond between viewers and the characters that only grows as the story unfolds and we learn more about the personal struggles of the film's main players. When all is said and done, The Penitent Man is an insightful look at human relationships and most importantly a wonderful cinematic experience. I can't wait to see what's next for Gyeney and Co.

I recently saw "The Penitent Man" at the Seattle premiere early this week. The two main actors, Lance Henriksen and Lathrop Walker, performed very well. The soundtrack was appropriate and professional. In my opinion, what was supposed to be undertone was overtly obvious. The movie itself had interesting points and almost not surprisingly was written in two weeks. The director, who also co-wrote and produced the film, is very young and it is apparent that it is early in his career. There were places in the film that were overly tense and suspenseful feeling awkward and tearing the viewer away from the relationship trying to be established with the characters. This movie had potential based on the storyline idea but fell flat in the end.