Dr. Jason Pyatt is quickly approaching a moral crossroads. His wife Evelyn is pregnant, his psychology practice is failing, and the bills are piling up. Broken from his family, aside from Evelyn, his only support resides with his good friend Ovid until one afternoon, a familiar client Mr. Darnell returns to Dr. Pratt’s office, requesting a session, during which Mr. Darnell (Lance Henriksen) reveals that he is from the future; a very dark, ethically corrupt and socially disoriented future, and Dr. Pratt (Lathrop Walker) has the ability to help change everything.
The Penitent Man is a small, quiet drama. It’s an independent effort from director/writer Nicholas Gyeney also responsible for The Falling (2006) and an upcoming film called Matt’s Chance due in 2013. It is character driven with large amounts of dialogue. In fact, a large portion of the film revolves around the conversation between Mr. Darnell and Dr. Pratt; yet, I found the movie to have a steady, easy-flowing pace. The performances from everyone were good enough, despite the flat delivery from Lathrop Walker, which actually works in his favor because it makes the authenticity of everything happening seem real just the way the script wasn’t the most original or inspiring. The conversation between Darnell and Pratt felt like two people who wanted to sound intelligent instead of actually being intelligent. I’m not taking a shot at Lance Henrksen’s or Lathrop Walker’s intelligence, please don’t think that but in context it worked in the film’s favor because who talks that way? Real people talk that way.
The Penitent Man feels like a movie that people will either like or disregard as being dull. The cast is comprised of only a handful of people, a lot of dialogue heavy on philosophy and ideology. It’s worth the risk.
No comments:
Post a Comment