Broken Vows

this is one of the most charming movies I've seen, but also with moments of drama, comedy and just all round good feeling. Tommy Lee Jones is excellent as always, and Annette O'Toole is wonderful as the girlfriend of the murder victim, and also Mr Jones's character's subsequent love interest. It is genuinely warm and moving without being too sweet or sickly as some love stories are. Mr Jones is a wonderful actor and this gives him yet another chance to shine as a priest torn between his duty to his calling and the woman he has come to love. Well worth a watch.

This TV movie was so unexpected in its subject matter and so thoughtful in its execution that it blew me away when I first saw it in 1987. When it showed up again on Lifetime years later, I made sure to get it on tape.

Tommy Lee Jones is Father Joe MacMahon. One of several priests at an inner-city church, he is settling into middle-age and his unchallenging duties, which don't include any real outreach to the people in the neighborhood. Without realizing it he has settled into mediocrity. When he is called to the death bed of a man who has been stabbed, he is shocked and puzzled that the man--though nominally a Catholic--refuses the last rites of the Church, preferring to die on his own terms, secure in his sense of God, and without saying who stabbed him. It's not so much that Joe's faith is shaken by this encounter, but he is made aware of his own complacency. He sets out to solve the mystery of the man's life and death, so as to try to understand his perspective on faith. He is joined along the way by Annette O'Toole, the dead man's sometime girlfriend, and a romantic awareness arises between them that is played out with humor and grace.

This is one of the few movies that deals with questions of faith, and it does so thoughtfully. Despite the murder mystery and the Thornbirds sort of situation with the priest and the girl beginning to fall for one another, this is not a flashy sort of film. The reviewer who thought the film attacks the Catholic Church is quite wrong. What the film is addressing is the need for faith to be humane, active and mindful, whether in the Church or outside of it. The film moves quietly, the tension provided by Jones' questing intelligence and the sense he gives that Joe is awake and aware for the first time in years. Jones is supported by a fine cast, especially Annette O'Toole as the good-humored and decent, if slightly kooky, artist, and also M. Emmett Walsh, Frances Fisher, Milo O'Shea, David Groh, and Jean de Baer. A then-new David Strathairn has a tiny but pivotal moment as the Christlike dying man, convincing us that this is a man who would leave a permanent mark on the soul of the priest whose offices he so gently refused.

"Broken Vows" doesn't provide sensationalism or thrills. In fact, its few attempts to generate excitement or suspense feel artificially ramped up. But the beautiful writing, and the actors firing on all cylinders because they know they have meaty material to work with, hold us to the end. This is a movie of ideas that richly repays the viewer who enters its world on its terms.

This worthless movie was obviously created by someone who doesn't know enough about the priesthood to condemn it as much as they do. Falling back on every cliche about the priesthood they could muster, all the people who made this movie do is succeed in irritating and preaching with a type of blind passion that they condemn in the Church. I wish I never would have paid the $2.50 to rent it.

In a dubious neighborhood in Manhattan, a Catholic priest (Jones) starts to question his occupation after talking with a dying man (David Strathairn) and meeting the woman in whom the victim was once involved (Annette). M. Emmet Walsh is on hand as a know-it-all detective.

I guess "Broken Vows" (1987) is technically a television production helmed by a proven TV director (Jud Taylor) and this can be observed in the wooden delivery of the characters' dialogues (like they just learned their lines the night before). Once you get past that issue, however, this ranks with Tommy Lee's best movies, just don't expect the action thrills of "The Fugitive." Rather, it has 'thrills' in the sense of real-life drama, which can be more compelling than overkill action if done effectively, at least for the mature-minded.

Annette was still in her prime at 34 years-old during shooting and so was Frances Fisher, who has a smaller part as Maureen. Meanwhile Jones was 40.

I also appreciated the unexpected depiction of artists and their studios in the big city. I had a couple of friends in this uncertain line of work; one was my best friend at the time and his studio looked very similar to Stuart Chase's in the movie, aka Amil.

The film works on three fronts: There's the murder mystery, there's McMahon's struggles with the usefulness of his profession and the Catholic sect in general, and, lastly, the relationship of the two protagonists. As my title blurb suggests, the flick commendably addresses the good, the bad and the ugly of life's blessings & curses and everything in between.

The lowkey route is taken and the movie's the better for it. For instance, we sense what's going on underneath the surface, but it's not spelled out. Lesser flicks require a passionate sex scene to 'wow' the viewer whereas this one opts for a revelatory statement or the simple clasping & kissing of hands.

It runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot in Montréal, Québec.

GRADE: B+

usual TV fare really, and made in 1986 it has an awful array of big shouldered clothes that poor annette o'toole had to wear (that red coat is absolutely dire and the poor actress who played maureen has probably tried to burn every copy of the film in existence. not that i'm shallow of course... ). it was watchable because tommy lee jones is always watchable and the growing spark between him and annette o'toole's character was charismatic. the other actors were OK too but not a film i will keep to watch again because though it tries hard to be interesting something about it is irredeemably naff and lacking in any real style or substance