Absolution

Just saw this movie. At first I thought it would be a (typical) dig against the Catholic Church, but thankfully it wasn't. In fact, I was touched to see a young woman actually be drawn back into her faith. My only criticism is that they had a scene where the main character was re-baptized, which wouldn't happen in the Catholic Church.

Bettina Lloyd (Samantha Mathis) is a magazine writer in NYC. Her dissatisfied editor sends her home to Grandville, Ohio where her comatose first-love Paolo Toratelli is presumed to be performing miracles with the guidance of his mother Maria. The Catholic church is investigating with idealistic young priest Father Flannagan. Bettina has been distant from her religious mother and her father who only wants grandkids. Her little brother Ben is the assistant coach at school. Father Paul Montoya is the local senior priest. Bettina is told her mother is dying and she is forced to confront a dark past.

This is a religious faith-based movie treated like a sincere Lifetime movie. I like the idea of dealing with the subject matter with this sensibility. It's also a lot of personal melodrama. The production is TV movie level but it's elevated by some solid actors. It may strike disbelievers the wrong way. For most others, I think this would be a compelling story.

Bettina Lloyd, a reporter struggling to make a career for herself on a New York magazine, finds herself obliged to accept an assignment that will take her back to her hometown in Ohio to investigate a report of a series of so-called medical "miracles". Her return forces her to face a mother with whom she has an estranged relationship, a father facing a future alone, a brother with a drinking problem... When she tries to examine the story, she is shocked to find that the root of the "miracles" lies with her former teenage romantic interest who has been comatose for over a decade and that his mother has been conducting medical cures by the laying on of his hand over the afflicted... But, surprisingly, the heart of the story is in Bettina herself...how she is forced to come to grips, sometimes through flashbacks, at times by being confronted by a growing crisis in her mother's health with the traumatic events in her young life which tore her away from her family...events which eventually are brought to the surface and resolved by the very situation which brought her home in the first place... Points to the acting, which gives us the right tough of honesty and believability without going over the melodramatic top.

Manhattan magazine reporter Samantha Mathis (as Bettina "Betty" Lloyd) is given a tough assignment. The 33-year-old is sent to her small Grandville, Ohio town, after an emotionally driven 15-year absence. She is to investigate reports of healing miracles being performed through her comatose former high school boyfriend Stefano DiMatteo (as Paolo Toratelli), assisted by his mother Maria Ricossa (as Maria). Skeptical due to a "dark secret" in her past, Ms. Mathis finds her family dealing with health issues...

Heart, cancer and alcohol problems are involved in the lives of papa Stephen McHattie (as Mike), mama Nicky Guadagni (as Myra) and brother Dan Petronijevic (as Ben). Mathis debates the existence of God with handsome young priest Peter Mooney (as Steve Flannagan). She points out what God is not responsible for healing and notes where God is not found, without considering the deity may be targeting Mathis herself. "Absolution" is no revelation. With the best-written role, Ms. Guadagni shines.

***** Absolution (9/11/06) Holly Dale ~ Samantha Mathis, Nicky Guadagni, Stephen McHattie, Peter Mooney