The Last Sin Eater

This is a work of art with universal appeal. The fact that the "Christian right" is claiming it as their own, should not turn off everyone else. Whether your world view is shaped by Jungian archetypes, Western philosophy, Eastern karma, or the books of Judaism, you will find deep meaning in this tiny-budget film.

The landscape is overwhelming, the characters captivating and the last few minutes of the film will require at least two hankies. Liana Liberato turns in a stunning performance as Cadi, the guilt burdened child around whom the story revolves; and Peter Wingfield brings incredible warmth and passion to a character whose face is obscured for most of the film. This work will endure as an art classic.

This is a good film to watch. Although it has the low-budget feeling, it promotes a good message. It passes a good message, and shows a twist on traditional practices. Not your average movie, that contains sex or gore. The slow developing plot took a little bit to even figure out what the movie was about. The accents are a little off, i agree to that. But who honestly knows what the accents where back then. When everyone was moving west, it was a major culture collision. The only thing I would have changed was a more developing plot towards the ending. "The Dark Secret," didn't even come into play till the last minutes. No reference point what-so-ever to what it was actually was.

According to ancient Celtic tradition, a "sin eater" is a person chosen by lottery to take the transgressions of others onto his soul so that the newly deceased can pass over to the great-beyond free of the stain of iniquity.

"The Last Sin Eater," the latest offering from FoxFaith Films (the branch of Twentieth Century Fox Studios that specializes in Christian-friendly movie-making) is a well-meaning but leaden and strangely eclectic work, sort of "The Village" meets "The Old Time Gospel Hour" meets "Little House on the Prairie" (no surprise in this last one, since the movie was directed and co-written by Michael Landon Jr.). Cali Forbes is a sweet-natured young girl, growing up in early 19th Century Appalachia, who believes that a mysterious hooded hermit - the local "sin-eater" - will be able to take away the guilt she feels over "causing" the death of her little sister in a river accident. She spends most of the movie seeking him out, much to the consternation of her parents and the myriad "colorful" folk who inhabit their little cove. However, it isn't until Cali encounters a wandering preacher (played by E.T.'s now-grownup buddy, Henry Thomas) that she learns who the "true" sin-eater really is (though one wonders how anyone in this particular time and place can be as woefully ignorant about the gospel as the people here seem to be).

Although the first half of the movie achieves a certain portentous creepiness in its tone and atmosphere, once the evangelist shows up, the movie devolves into an overwrought melodrama, marked by stilted dialogue, holier-than-thou speechifying and heavy-handed sentimentality. The acting, even on the part of Thomas and Louise Fletcher, is generally amateurish and wooden, although young Liana Liberato as Cali has a natural dignity and poise that work well on screen. And, oh yes, the scenery is eye-popping and gorgeous.

Based on the novel by Francine Rivers, "The Last Sin Eater" clearly has its heart in the right place, but good intentions alone can't make it a satisfying movie.

Let me start off by saying I am not a Christian (I DO believe in God but I'm afraid that doesn't make me a Christian) - and to answer your question: YES, this is a *Christian* movie, with a very clear message, but I won't spoil the plot for you.

The story in a nutshell is the awakening of a Welsh community in early America, coming to terms with their dark history, seen through the eyes of a ten year old child.

There are flaws. It's based on a novel, so the director had to make difficult choices to narrow down the plot for screen time. The editing wasn't good and led to some incoherency and superficial plot holes. The story sometimes wasn't going anywhere, and the 'horror' scenes best could've been left out, they seem out of place. Special effects looked cheap. Last and least: the accents. They should've invested a bit more in accent training because this sounded like a far fetched (teethless) dialect..

But there's some good performances to be admired. First of all, I tip my hat for Liana Liberato. What a great actress at such a young age. Secondly Soren Fulton did a great job and there was lots of chemistry between him and Liana. And what about Louise Fletcher?! Excellent. The actress who once played the horrid nurse Pratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).. she performed wonderfully and was brilliantly cast.

So let's see what we have here. If you take all these things into account and you're not scared off by evangelism - not bad for a Sunday afternoon.

This movie had very good elements, a grieving family, a community secret, dark undertones, a message of hope.....but it was all destroyed by the editing. While this movie was being filmed, the emotions were palpable on the set; the hair on the back of my neck stood up many times. Unfortunately, the director was so concerned about not showing any violence on screen, that all the passion was edited out.

Mr. Landon edited the most emotional scenes like it was an MTV video. He did not allow many of the camera shots to stay with one character for more than 2 seconds. This created very choppy scenes and disconnected his audience from the story. Mr. Landon did allow the scenic shots to pan, and zoom in (they were beautiful shots due to the DP), but we could have done with shorter scenic shots and longer camera time during the emotional scenes.

The three most disappointing scenes were Brogan Kai choking Caddie, the Sin Eater taking Caddie's sins away, and the Indian Massacre scenes. When these were being filmed, many of the crew had tears in their eyes. You could have heard a pin drop, no one was breathing. These were intense, emotional scenes, and Mr. Landon edited them down to very bad, home movie play-acting.

It is ashame, because Mr. Landon directed this film very nicely, and the original camera shots stayed on the actors for a much longer time. Mr. Landon should not have been allowed in the editing room.