Drinking/Anti-Catholi c

There's not that much drinking in the movie. Nothing too crazy.
There's a scene in the bar where the priest (Simian) and some others have been drinking and are tipsy to say the least...There is, if I remember correctly, little other drinking.

As for the people and the claims of the movie being anti-catholic, I'd ignore those complaints. I've seen the movie a few times, and not once did I ever get the impression it was bashing Catholics or Catholicism. In fact, I had a much better view of the Church after the movie. Most of the complaints didn't even make sense- someone complained that Keene just up and tossed the wine onto the table and ran out in the middle of his preparing the service, when in fact he ran out because he had a vision the female lead was in mortal danger- I assume these people would have him let her face whatever danger/injury in order to keep the sanctity of some wine? (Don't ask me.)

The failings of the characters weren't BECAUSE they were catholic, and it never implied they were flawed because they were catholic, it merely painted a picture of 2 imperfect MEN who happen to be catholics...I had to wonder, when hearing the complaints, if characters who happen to be catholic cannot possibly have flaws, lest that be considered an attack on catholicism.

I just don't see anything anti-cathloc about it. They never attack any of the sacred practices. They never mock the religion. They never try to belittle it as second class to another religion/sect...Simian and Keene sometimes don't always perform their tasks as priests with much gusto or loyalty, but the point is the fact that they're flawed beings. It didn't matter what their religious persuasion was. Even the storyline with Keene being the priest who closes down unprofitable churches is centered on his being a bitter and jaded guy in general, (we never get the impression its catholicism that lead him to his current disposition).

So, yeah, I think it works on many levels. It's not offensive to any sect, it's definitely a family movie overall, it's got a good message, etc. I picked up the DVD the day it came out because I enjoyed it so much when I caught it last ur in the theatre.

Hi,

I just saw your post and read through jboze313's response.

Honestly, I'm not sure about the drinking. I saw this movie over a year ago and I'm afraid my memory is a bit fuzzy about some of it. But my impression is that there's really more drinking than jboze mentions. One of the key characters is an alcoholic priest and there are a fair number of scenes in which there's a fair amount of alcohol use.

As far as anti-Catholicism goes, it's fairly promintent throughout the movie. The "short story" is that all charactes who are "bad" are Catholic; all "bad things" are Catholic; Mass and Confession, which are considered very important Sacraments to most Catholics, are heavily "dissed", and there's much more. I am myself Catholic and when I went to see the movie was very surprised, and very disappointed. If you're interested in "grisly details" I and others have posted some these in the two main threads on this subject:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1109499/board/thread/91734401

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1109499/board/thread/91691263

All in all, my own reaction is that this movie definitely has some good things in it, but on the whole is a pretty nasty piece of work that descends into outright anti-Catholic bigotry repeatedly. I don't say this lightly at all; it's really very disappointing especially in a movie marketed .... or rather mis-marketed ... as a Christmas movie. Reportedly, the screenwriter, main character, producer, production co, & distribution companies are all strongly anti-Catholic. But the details are all pretty readily available elsewhere and have been much discussed on other movie-watchers' boards as well.

And hey: there are a lot of really good Christmas, seasonal, family movies out there. My humble suggestion would be that if something like that is what you and your father are looking for, your might want to consider looking elsewhere.

Charles Delacroix