There is something I cannot understand;it is really beyond me;how can a movie so highly rated,a rating it thoroughly deserves , be totally overlooked by the users,as far as comments are concerned ?after watching it,I was expecting at least one hundred of them!Much to my surprise,I'm the first one to write about it.
This very short work (70 min ,but no filling!),bitter and utterly uncompromising ,will perhaps be more appreciated if you were brought up a catholic ,but every viewer looking for "something different" will be rewarded.
The action takes place in a confessional ,where a man who's just killed someone -and is about to repeat this crime this very night- wants a priest to give him absolution.
There are many flashbacks ,and little by little ,we understand the sinner can show compassion ,pity ,and that it is not a black and white world,but surely a gray one.We guess the unexpected final twist halfway through the movie,but the interest does not suffer for it .
The movie deals with religious concepts such as free will ,the relativity of what's good and what's evil and the existence of God himself is called into question;it could also be seen as a metaphoric meeting with the Devil ,but it's up to you to decide,all in all, who the real satanic being is.
There're only two actors (the others are supporting for a very short time)but they are merely prodigious :Kiefer Sutherland portrays an ambiguous character,a killer who sometimes resembles a black Robin Hood (the extraordinary and totally unexpected scene of the computer),and who,from the start,got a raw deal ;Matching him every step of the way is aging John Hurt's tormented priest who believed he could redeem himself and escape from a horrible past .
Even with violence kept to the minimum ,this is a pessimistic terrifying movie,which leaves no hope to the viewer .It might shock true believers ,the words do not cut ,they bite;but they inspire the vital extremism of the confrontation.
70 min of your time;it's not much and you won't forget "the confession"
