Hey folks, Harry here... We have a single review of last night's test screening of THE SIN EATER by Brian Helgeland. First off, this review has MASSIVE SPOILERS, and should only be read by those of you that have no interest in seeing Helgeland's Junior Directing effort. Now this review is extremely negative, but when you have a film that is heavily based upon bizarre religious revelations... You'll have some very negative reviews, mainly by folks that could give to rat's anuses about such things. Not saying that that is this reviewer's world view, but this is just one review, by one person that we don't know based upon a very very early cut of the film. For those that don't mind MAJOR SPOILERS, continue, for the rest of us... let's press on shall we?
Hey guys,
Just went to a test screening of THE SIN EATER, the new Brian Helgeland film starring Heath Ledger. I had some good expectations for the film, being that I liked LA Confidential (I wasn't so keen on Payback but I was willing to overlook it). My expectations were dashed within the first ten minutes of the film.
[Spoiler warning]
The plot of The Sin Eater was a muddled one but here's the rundown: The film starts with the 'mysterious' death of an ex-priest, Dominic, in Rome. Cut to New York City where Heath Ledger is a Roman Catholic Priest named Alex. Another priest (played by Robocop himself, Peter Weller) informs him of Dominic's death, which prompts Alex to head to Rome to investigate. Before he leaves though, Alex is joined by escaped mental patient, Maura (Shannyn Sossamon). Stay with me here people--
After a montage sequence involving all of one shot, Alex and Maura are in Rome. They meet up with another priest played by Mark Addy (who by the way looks like he's indulged in a few too many Eucharist lately) and try to figure out who could have killed Dominic. Alex begins to suspect a character called the Sin Eater (who sucks sins out of a dying person) and this is where the film starts getting ridiculous and boring instead of just being boring.
Now we're taken to the mysterious, electronic music bumpin, secret underworld of renegade priests. Some really confusing crap happens involving a masked high priest, a nail drivin' apparition, Heath in peril in an underground river, and more sacrilegious acting by Peter Weller. Mark Addy is incapacitated and put in the hospital while our man of the four haired beard, Heath pursues the mysterious Sin Eater.
Enter the Sin Eater, or should I say some chump who looks like a model from the latest Gap catalogue. The only sinister thing this Sin Eater does is provoke some of the worst expository dialogue this side of a film school production. You see, the Sin Eater listens to the confessions of people that have been excommunicated from the church, there by allowing them to be absolved of their sins and sent to Heaven.
Anyway, after a night on the hoppin' town/state we call the Vatican, the Sin Eater tells Heath that he is sick of all this Sin Eating and would like to hand over the reigns to our boy Heath. He also talks Heath into throwing away all of his lifelong training and teachings and go boink the nutty Maura. Heath does his priestly duty to please that mental house booty (in a very PG-13 way, if you know what I mean) and decides not to be the Sin Eater. Sin Eater doesn't like this and kills Maura thereby forcing Heath to perform the Sin Eater ritual on her and become the titular character. Basically Heath the Sin Eater goes out and kills the original Sin Eater and then guess what? Peter Weller is the evil high priest with Papal aspirations. And faster than you can say 'excommunication,' Robocop gets killed too, but at this point in the movie, who cares? I didn't, the people at the screening didn't, and hopefully, you dear reader shouldn't as well. Final word: not even the Sin Eater could absolve this film.
"Saffron and Iggy."
