Movie Review: CONFESSION

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: January 26th, 2022 / 01:29 AM

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Stephen Moyer, Colm Meaney, Claire-Hope Ashitey
Writer: David Beton
Director: David Beton
Distributor: Uncork’d Entertainment
Release Date: January 21, 2022 (theatrical), January 25, 2022 (digital)

CONFESSION begins as a what’s-going-on-here type of mystery.

Victor Strong (Stephen Moyer) is writing letter of apology/confession to his daughter. He’s bleeding from a gunshot wound, in the office of a Catholic church, preparing to talk with the unsuspecting Father Peter (Colm Meaney).

Victor expects that what he has to say will greatly upset the priest. It certainly doesn’t help that when Victor makes his presence known, he’s training a gun on Father Peter and insisting that the priest lock all the doors.

We become aware early on that there is a third person hiding in the church, also bleeding, trying to listen in on the interaction between the two men.

By now, we’re wondering what’s happening on a number of fronts. Writer/director David Beton gives us an intriguing set-up. He also gives us consistently lovely moody imagery, courtesy of cinematographer Andrew Rodger and production designer Jamie Foote.

However, despite committed performances by Moyer as the desperate Victor and Meaney as the alternately concerned and bewildered cleric, there are problems that the actors can’t solve solely through their work.

Time and again, characters don’t ask reasonable questions (that will occur to most viewers) simply because to do so would cause particular revelations to happen early.

The more we learn about what’s happening, the more we have reservations about one character’s methods and logic. Another character jumps to conclusions so off-base that we can’t figure out how he’s arriving at them.

Also, while CONFESSION is largely a dialogue between a self-professed sinner and a priest, the film fails to make meaningful connections between religion, or even philosophy, and the situation at hand. While there is some impact of one person upon another, much of what we hear is expository rather than a conflict between faith and fatalism.

Fans of Moyer and/or Meaney may enjoy getting to see these thespians plying their craft with little interruption for almost eighty minutes. As a thriller or as a message piece, though, CONFESSION disappoints.

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