Watched this movie purely on the purpose of watching Aubrey Plaza. She is a master of dead pan humor but she fails miserably in drama. As did this film which had an incredibly poor script, weak acting and a horrible music score. Even if this movie was a parody of Christian ethics which it was not it would have failed. The premise might have had purpose but the film was so pretentious it was banal and absurd.
shareThis is the impression that often occurs when you stumble onto a stylized film without context. The director, Hal Hartley, has utilized this style since his debut. The deadpan absurdity is his brand, just like more currently famous directors like Wes Anderson, or more extreme examples like David Lynch.
The acting, nor the script is poor in the sense you mean. The script is designed to be awkward, and the acting is designed to be off, and not being aware of this going in, especially when it's more "subtle" such as here, can make it hard to judge (especially if you have had little exposure to similar off beat styles).
It is also important to note that this is the 3rd film in the Henry Fool trilogy, and continues the style and level of absurdity of the previous entries (granted, much closer in mood to the first film, Henry Fool, which is frequently sighted as one of the best films of the 90s - and Hartley one of the best directors of the same decade. It is a bit sad how someone's existence and style of someone largely important in the film scene can drop out of the zeitgeist in less than 2 decades.
My 1000 favorite films - http://www.imdb.com/list/PkAV7BgvMJg