THE APOSTLE (October) Starring: Robert Duvall, Farrah Fawcett, Miranda Richardson, John Beasley, Walter Goggins, June Carter Cash, Todd Allen, Billy Bob Thornton. Screenplay: Robert Duvall. Producer: Rob Carliner. Director: Robert Duvall. MPAA Rating: PG (adult themes, mild profanity, brief violence) Running Time: 130 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
A moment of mild understatement: people of Christian faith haven't fared well in film. When Hollywood was still afraid to offend, Christian characters were flawless, salt-of-the-earth folks; later, as cinematic taboos vanished through the 60s and 70s, religion became a sure sign of either mental illness or hypocrisy. Improbably extremes ruled, with few film-makers bothering to delve into the complex middle ground occupied by millions of Americans: flawed human beings who are nevertheless completely sincere and devoted to their faith.
Pentecostal minister Euliss F. "Sonny" Dewey, the title character in THE APOSTLE, may be the most wonderfully complex Christian character ever depicted on film, and every ounce of credit for that creation goes to Robert Duvall. Duvall wrote, directed and stars as Sonny, a man with an unfailing passion for his calling as a preacher. Unfortunately he also has an unfailing passion for women, leading his wife Jessie (Farrah Fawcett) to throw him out of the house and engineer his ouster from his church. The short-tempered Sonny responds by taking a baseball bat to the head of Jessie's new lover, then quickly taking it on the lam from his home in Texas to Bayou Boutte, Louisiana. There he re-christens himself "The Apostle E. F.," dedicating himself to beginning a new ministry in his new home.
Duvall works wonders with Sonny, depicting every possible facet of this complicated man's personality. An early scene, in which Sonny stops at the scene of an automobile accident to guide a critically injured young man to salvation, depicts the single-minded, necessarily arrogant conviction of the evangelist that everyone needs "saving" (as well as the accompanying prideful glee when he succeeds). Sonny's belief that his work as a preacher supercedes all other obligations unifies every action, from his rationalization of his infidelities to his decision to run from the law. Duvall even touches humorously on the reaction of others to Sonny's fervor -- one man who offers Sonny hospitality also sleeps warily with a shotgun by his side.
If there's one major stumbling block in THE APOSTLE, it is that the other characters in the film exist entirely to react to Sonny. While the performances are uniformly strong and naturalistic, the supporting players rarely seem to have lives of their own. From Jessie, to the young mechanic (Walter Goggins) who becomes Sonny's close friend, to a racist troublemaker (Billy Bob Thornton), all serve as spectators or functional props in the story of Sonny's redemption. Duvall commits so much energy to making this one character completely real that he has little left to spend on anyone else.
You may not end up minding all that much, since that one character becomes so fascinating. Duvall has long been one of America's finest actors, but this is the kind of role into which he disappears most completely -- slightly roguish but unmistakably human souls like his roles in TENDER MERCIES and LONESOME DOVE. When Sonny gives his final sermon in THE APOSTLE, in a sequence which lingers and builds in intensity, you realize exactly what Duvall is aiming at. It is possible for a man who is quick-tempered, stubborn and unfaithful to his wife to change lives for the better; it doesn't take a saint to be a good Christian. Ultimately, THE APOSTLE is a strange sort of character study, because Sonny doesn't really change all that much. Like most well-intentioned by imperfect people, he just keeps trying to be better.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 preacher features: 8.
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