Monsignor

Now, I didn't rent this thinking it would be a good movie. I had heard this was an uproarious unintentional comedy, so that's what I was expecting. There are a few laughs to be found, but I found this movie to be a mostly dull and murky drama. Reeve is totally miscast and out of his league here, even if the screenplay was better.

Someone on a game show once named this as his favorite bad movie, citing that hilarious scene in the church when Genevieve Bujold, playing a tramp postulant, realizes that her boyfriend is a priest.

There's nothing good to be said about this film except that it has glorious scenery. It's sad today to see Christopher Reeve healthy and walking - and wasting what little time he was going to have in rotgut like this. As someone raised in the Catholic church, I loved hearing the Latin again. Also with the recent scandals in the church that have come to light, I don't really put much past the Catholic church or the high mucky-mucks. But this movie is really ridiculous.

The performances were okay, given what these poor people had to deal with. The Genevieve Bujold character is a riot; the role is a career-killer. I mean, bare breasts exposed, the woman is asking the Reeve character, "Do you think I'll make a good nun?" The Christopher Reeve character - that of a mafioso priest - is preposterous. I used to love Jason Miller. Not in this. I'm old enough to remember the old pope - were they kidding with that characterization of him?

Alas, today, you really wouldn't watch this with friends for a few laughs (as one of the older posts suggests) because it's just too awful to see young, handsome Christopher Reeve. So probably the best thing some higher-up can do is take this baby out of circulation. If I'm going to watch Christopher Reeve, I'll watch him fly and remember him when he was just starting out, vital, handsome, with it all in front of him.

As Christopher Reeve said himself, this movie could have been really good but the bad editing ruined it. And I wholeheartedly agree. It was a pretty bold movie, even for the bold 80's: a tale of a Vatican priest who deals with the mafia, seduces a nun and takes up arms in the war, bloodying his hands. This was clearly still a taboo, any kind of negative portrayal of the Catholic church and the Vatican. But somewhere during its 2 hours this movie lost its boldness and became just another failed experiment with an interesting idea.

In the year 1982, Reeve was clearly looking to establish himself as a serious actor and it couldn't have been easy for a guy who so convincingly looks like a superhero and who came to prominence as THE superhero. He was in Deathtrap that same year and did well in that part. One might say that this role has something in common with that one, because he plays an opportunist who is morally unclean. This movie has a really top notch cast, with Jason Miller, Fernando Rey and Genevieve Bujold as the brightest part of it. Miller, though somewhat miscast in the role of the Sicilian mafioso, brings the dark intensity similar to the one in his role as Father Karass. Only difference is, here he has a mustache. Joe Cortese is also good in the part of Reeve's old friend who becomes his business partner and the link with Miller. Fernando Rey plays the part of cardinal Santoni, who represents the political side of Vatican, the ambitious and power-hungry priest who is willing to close an eye to illegal stuff in order to achieve his own goals.

Anyway, this movie is interesting to follow but sometimes it can't decide whether it wants to be a drama about corruption and moral or a love movie. Some scenes are well shot and gripping, like the scene where the nun played by Bujold discovers Reeve's true identity and occupation. It is the dramatic highpoint of the film. But the love story lasts too short to really give the movie the edge it needs, another angle. Christopher Reeve is one of the film's bright points because he really does make his character believable. He's a priest who tried to be both a priest and a man. I guess you can say that this is the ultimate theme of the film, how hard it is to be a priest and give up the good things in life in order to serve God.

I think it's a great shame that this film has been largely forgotten and scorned by the critics and by the audiences. For despite it's editorial flaws and despite the screenplay not holding up till the very end, it still can be an interesting watch and a spiritual lesson.

I had watched this movie when I was growing up. May be I was 20 or so. There are only few movies after which I would think "what the hell did I watch just now?". This is one of them. What impressed me most were two things: 1. Character of Christopher Reeve wants to experience everything without inhibition. And is prepared to face consequences. In a way he is crazy brave. 2. Someone asked in one of the question\answer site if they knew a movie in which character goes in gradual degradation. This movie came to my mind. No matter what happens in the end, the character is aware that he has lived his life to the fullest (in a sense in a immoral bad way but I don't think he cares much about rules laid down by some other man).

One of my favorites.

It's inconceivable that a director like Frank Perry could have been associated with "Monsignor". Mr. Perry was a man responsible for some good movies in the sixties and seventies. Who knows what might have attracted him to direct this high camp picture that should be better forgotten.

The plot of the movie is preposterous, at best. The point the movie is trying to make is how the Catholic Church makes a perfect partner with the Mafia, something that could only make sense to the author of the novel. The second theme deals with the way Flaherty falls in love with the novice Clara, and how he keeps from her the secret of his identity, which is obvious, as the pair move in the same circles, so it would be inevitable for the young woman to find out who her lover really is.

"Monsignor" wastes two hours in trying to make sense without success. The cast does what it can trying to give life to these one dimensional characters they were asked to bring to life for the movie. Not even the musical score by John Williams does anything to help the movie.

Future viewers are warned as to what to expect.