Jim (Brian Rooney) has just lost his daughter to MS, and now he's full
of guilt that he might not have done all for her that he could and the
like. He turns to his priest, Thomas (Matthew Urban), for solace, but
Thomas can't give him none. Thing is, Thomas has just found out that he's
terminally ill and has four weeks to live - the most. He thinks God has
forsaken him and considers himself a broken man. His only hope is that he
at least can make up with his daughter, Millie (Lindsay Rathert), whom he
has always denied because she was born out of wedlock from a one-night
stand, but no luck there. Millie has never known her father, Thomas, was
neglected by her mother (Regi Bachochin), and now lives with Rod (Daniel
Kuhlman), an abusive good-for-nothing who provides her with all the drugs
she needs to get through the day - but in exchange, he has turned her into
a prostitute. Just like Millie, Dane (James R. Doherty) has never really
known his father - incidently it was Jim - and has been neglected by his
mother (Diane Marty) ... and feeling unloved by the world, he has
attempted suicide a year ago, and is since in therapy. Mainly, Dane lacks
love in his life, the love of anyone, really, so eventually he orders a
hooker - Millie, incidently, and the two hit it off instantly ... but
then, Millie is revoked by his weakness to just give up rather than ...
well, what she did, and she runs off. So we have four lost souls, and
what it takes to get them back on their feet is not so much a miracle as
is an utter disaster ... If I have made God Forgive Us
sound like a formulaic tearjerker, I need to assure you, the movie is not,
it's rather a really well told quartet of stories being only gradually
(and quite impressively) tied together to one whole, finding one and the
same ending and carthasis for all four narrative threads ... and in case
you're worrying, despite "God" in the title, there is no
religious punchline to all of this, it's just really cleverly resolved.
Now add to this a suitably subtle directorial effort and a really
competent cast, and you've got yourself a pretty good movie. Just be
warned, this is most certainly no party movie, but in all its sadness it
leaves you with more than a glimmer of hope (and probably welled up eyes)
in the end.
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