Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Ersbel Oraph Somebody recommended this movie. Than there was Roger Ebert giving it only one start out of four. I knew Ebert was a bigot. But a movie made just for picking on the Catholic Church, worth it? To tell you the truth I was expecting some British Mads Mikkelsen doing some sort of Adam's Apples. Maybe darker. Maybe with some protestants put in for more color.But no, that was an excellent movie. The story is rather tight. It looks like a comedy, only to lighten the issues or things would be way to depressive. I did not like Philomena. I think that is a story that has to be told, but how Philomena was told is a bad idea. Priest doesn't suffer from those shortcomings.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

George Wright If you are looking for a movie on the crisis in the Catholic priesthood in the late 20th century, this is it. Not related to the recent sex abuse crisis, it deals with adult sexuality and the struggle with celibacy. It also highlights two different styles of leadership among the Catholic clergy.Two priests with decidedly different approaches find themselves in the same parish in working class Liverpool. The younger priest Fr Pilkington (Linus Roache) takes the view that he is in the world but not part of it. His older counterpart Fr Thomas (Tom Wilkinson) plays fast and loose with church protocols while going to night clubs and keeping the parish housekeeper as his live-in girlfriend. Fr Pilkington breaks his own high standards by going to a gay bar where he meets a male partner for his own sexual gratification. When he returns late to the rectory, Fr. Thomas asks if he wants to talk but Pilkington disregards him. Succumbing to temptation, Fr Pilkington is unable to resist getting involved in a sexual liaison. When it becomes public, Fr Thomas becomes his ally and shows that he can befriend a man whose style is so at odds with his own. Without giving away the ending, the two priests have many heated discussions which in an odd way bring them together and leads to a dramatic showdown with their own parishioners. Tom Wilkinson is exceptional in the role of Fr Matthew Thomas; Linus Roche as Fr Pilkington walks a tightrope as a man dedicated to his faith and to his calling but cannot resist the temptation to have sex with another man. If you are interested in the priesthood and its challenges, don't miss this one.

moonspinner55 Linus Roache plays a young British priest conflicted over his vocation, by the Catholic rules governing him, and by his sexual orientation (he picks up a lad for sex in a gay pub, and we are to assume this isn't his first time at the rodeo). Beginning with a bit of religious anarchy (which is muted, and then forgotten about), this well-meaning melodrama indicates to us that it intends to be shocking and unsettling. Unfortunately, screenwriter Jimmy McGovern is much too interested in being sympathetic to our hero, resulting in a film that seesaws its way through a number of dispiriting episodes. Some of McGovern's dialogue regarding sex, celibacy, homosexuality, and the church is thought-provoking, but his central character is a dullard. Roache, with his round, empty eyes and gray pallor, hasn't an ounce of charisma. The sparkle that was so needed here is provided by Tom Wilkinson in the smaller role of the older, seasoned priest who is in love with his housekeeper. The movie isn't very well edited or directed, though there are some strong scenes as well as plenty of ludicrous ones. ** from ****

rsg2033 Priest was an interesting movie. When I read about it in Down and Dirty Pictures I expected it to be a tasteless assault upon the Christian religion, but to my surprise it wasn't, and not only was it not tasteless it turned out to be a pretty good film. I felt like it treated its subject matter fairly delicately given that it was an independent film and it was a Miramax production. I thought that this was an excellent movie about a priest who is doubting his own profession and the fact that God was even real. Honestly I thought that his relationship with the girl who was being molested by her father was more interesting than the fact that he was gay. At first I even thought that him being gay was overkill and the movie would have been better if it were just about his relationship to the girl, but by the time the ending rolled around I realized that it was necessary for him to be gay for this movie to work. If it were not for that touching scene in which she is the only person to receive the sacraments from him I would say that his being gay was totally inconsequential to the movie. But those very few moments absolutely make this movie. But now that I have discussed the "gay" factor I would like to concentrate on some of the movie's other strong points. This film was truly hilarious. The gay priest's relationship with his fellow straight priest was another high point in the film. Their conversations about, "What does God care about what a man does with his dick?" Were particularly funny and the scene in which the older man they are staying with chaperones them is just hysterical. There are two other scenes that stick out in my mind about this movie. The first being when the molesting father is in the confessional and you only get to see his face, that man was simply terrifying. He seemed to be so evil in that one scene, he really nailed the part. The second scene that I thought was particularly powerful was when the gay priest was praying and telling Jesus that he had it so easy because He knew everything and basically yelling at God for being God—if that makes any sense—God was answering his prayer by exposing the girl's father as a molester. Overall Priest is a superb movie and it is rather unfortunate that some people will avoid this film simply because of its premise.