Eli, a young educated preacher has recently returned to his hometown with his pregnant wife to take over services at his late father’s struggling church, where he delivers cerebral sermons intended to “bring progressive thinking” to tradition-bound parishioners. Since he needs to compete with more modern churches, at the insistence of a pushy alcoholic man, Eli agrees to host a revival to help boost attendance and fill the coffers. One day in church, he meets a homeless drifter Daniel. He is dirty and looks homeless but you a still appreciate his chiseled face and body and can tell he is handsome. The flirting is very obvious between two and you can tell Eli falls hard and fast for him. He provides Daniel shelter in a secluded cabin out of town that he owns. After a couple of meetings, Eli cant hold back anymore and they finally start having a full ons sexual affair. Soon, it becomes hard to carry on and someone takes pic of them together and sends to his wife. He promises that he will give up on this affair. But Daniel will have none it and he shows up at church confessing he is gay. Father Eli pretends to 'heal' him which causes Revival's tickets to sell out. His wife urges the alcoholic man from congregation to beat up Daniel. When Eli finds Daniel unconscious, he burns the cabin down and the film ends with him giving the sermon at Revival.
The film is unexpected, bold take on the hypocrisies of Southern Baptist Christianity and the dangers of sexual repression. It is even more relevant being set in a small southern town of US. But having said that, these kind of films used to be lot more desirable back in early 2000s. I feel as a society we have moved on. I could be wrong, but at least in terms of subject, we definitely have. And when you have an ending like this, it is essentially showing sexuality in a bad light IMO.The film is more interested in advancing arguments about the hypocrisy and oppressiveness of religious orthodoxy than in presenting plausibly fleshed-out people and situations. Daniel is a sign of temptation into whom the preacher gives in, but sadly we could have used more moments of them together. The climax feels rushed and we honestly never get to fully see the struggle preacher faces between sexuality and religion. As soon as the wife finds out, he is ready to give it all up; which didn't make much sense to me. As a character, it would have been nice to see more of the inner guilt and also not have the religion win over. I am definitely upset about the way the climax is handled. (5/10)
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