Exposing people who exploit religion is always nice and the setup here is interesting. Performances by Jennifer Connelly and, to a lesser extent, Marisa Tomei and Pierce Brosnan, are good. But, that's not enough.
The film is neither funny or fun enough to be a good comedy. It's more weird. Which could be fine if it were more realistic, focusing more on the religious exploits of bad clergymen. But, as-is, it just wastes a lot of opportunities - way too much.
Also, Greg Kinnear, as the protagonist, didn't do a very good job and it hurts the movie. He tries to do his usual "confused nice guy" act, which, in theory, is right for the part, but, just doesn't work out very well.
The story is severely lacking in many aspects, especially the end. You can't really just cut the story off when you run out of things to say and have a few sentences of "what happened after" on the screen to wrap up loose ends. Sure, weird things happen and don't really stop (to let you make a movie ending), but, you can't really show that in a comedy. Even in a drama, it's very hard to do. For example, something like a scene with Jennifer Connelly scolding Greg Kinnear for "deceiving the authorities about pastor (Pierce Brosnan)" and saying she can't be his wife any more and him looking at here in complete disbelief would be much, much better than one sentence that says she divorced him. I'm not saying that it's what should have been done here, but _something_ should, and I'm saying a scene about the divorce would be better than a sentence on the screen.
So, if you want to see a good performance by Jennifer Connelly and a good-enough weird performance by Pierce Brosnan, it's a good watch. Otherwise, pass.
The film is neither funny or fun enough to be a good comedy. It's more weird. Which could be fine if it were more realistic, focusing more on the religious exploits of bad clergymen. But, as-is, it just wastes a lot of opportunities - way too much.
Also, Greg Kinnear, as the protagonist, didn't do a very good job and it hurts the movie. He tries to do his usual "confused nice guy" act, which, in theory, is right for the part, but, just doesn't work out very well.
The story is severely lacking in many aspects, especially the end. You can't really just cut the story off when you run out of things to say and have a few sentences of "what happened after" on the screen to wrap up loose ends. Sure, weird things happen and don't really stop (to let you make a movie ending), but, you can't really show that in a comedy. Even in a drama, it's very hard to do. For example, something like a scene with Jennifer Connelly scolding Greg Kinnear for "deceiving the authorities about pastor (Pierce Brosnan)" and saying she can't be his wife any more and him looking at here in complete disbelief would be much, much better than one sentence that says she divorced him. I'm not saying that it's what should have been done here, but _something_ should, and I'm saying a scene about the divorce would be better than a sentence on the screen.
So, if you want to see a good performance by Jennifer Connelly and a good-enough weird performance by Pierce Brosnan, it's a good watch. Otherwise, pass.