Priest
- Director: Antonia Bird
- Writer: Jimmy McGovern
- Producer: George Faber; Joanna Newbery
CGiii Comment
The question is simple: pro-homosexuality or anti-catholic?
Well, it's not really that simple.
Priest is a finely acted, badly directed film that, supposedly, exudes all that McGovern has to say. And, he doesn't say it very well.
He has become the darling of British TV and readily declares his hatred for the feature film - then, what is this?
There is too much hypocrisy going on - on-screen and behind the camera.
Bird started as a soap TV director - and, woefully, she really hasn't advanced very far.
The clumsy comedy, both writer and director are guilty, sits uncomfortably amid the highly implausible story where the celibacy argument is the trump card.
Furious and hateful priests look down upon their peers who screw whomever they wish - bless.
The writing is soapbox preaching...directed with the lustre-less lather of a cheap soap - foaming to a resolution that is contrived and totally self-indulgent.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Father Greg Pilkington (Linus Roache) is torn between his call as a conservative Catholic priest and his secret life as a homosexual with a gay lover, frowned upon by the Church. Upon hearing the confession of a young girl of her incestuous father, Greg enters an intensely emotional spiritual struggle deciding between choosing morals over religion and one life over another.
Cast & Characters
Linus Roache as Father Greg Pilkington;
Tom Wilkinson as Father Matthew Thomas;
Robert Carlyle as Graham;
Cathy Tyson as Maria Kerrigan;
Lesley Sharp as Mrs. Unsworth;
Robert Pugh as Mr. Unsworth;
James Ellis as Father Ellerton;
Christine Tremarco as Lisa Unsworth;
Paul Barber as Charlie;
Rio Fanning as Bishop;
Jim R. Coleman as Funeral director;
Bill Dean as Altar boy;
Gilly Coman as Ellie Molloy;
Fred Pearson as Patrick;
Jimmy Gallagher as Mick Molloy