When the film opens, a man in a doctor’s office spouts
some biblical passage (hey, isn’t that the same bit that Mace Windu recites in Pulp
Fiction?), then shoots the doctor in the head (hey, isn’t that what Mace
Windu does in Pulp Fiction after reciting that passage?) before then
giving us a fairly poor rendition of “Amazing Grace.” We soon learn that this
murdered doctor performed abortions, and that’s what caused the religious nut
to go completely sideways.
The film introduces us to Mac (Andrew Moxham) and Angela (Sarah
Smyth), an unmarried couple living in a small town. He is a deputy sheriff, and
she works at a clinic providing counseling to women. Funding for the clinic has
been pulled, but she is determined to keep helping these people, even though
the sheriff tells Mac it’s a bad idea. Another bad idea is having the camera
constantly jolting around. Hold still! Please, directors and cinematographers,
don’t have your cameras constantly in jerky motion, as it’s really irritating.
Some anti-abortion folks picket outside their home, and
after a while we learn that Angela actually runs her clinic from their house,
which seems like an incredibly bad idea. Who would do that? Anyway, we see
Angela at work, and she immediately strikes us as very compassionate and competent.
That puts her in great contrast to Jeremiah (Shane Twerdun, who also co-wrote
the screenplay), the town’s minister who forbids a woman from getting an
abortion even though following through on the pregnancy will certainly mean her
death, and then in another scene watches on without any compassion as a woman
gives birth to a stillborn child. Oddly, the effect on Jeremiah of seeing this
dead baby is to turn him on, and he goes home to his wife, telling her he’s had
a vision that they should conceive a child. And though she tells him she’s not
in the mood, he takes her anyway. And after she reveals she’s on the pill, so
no child will result from this rape, he savagely beats her.
Jeremiah’s wife then commits one of the film’s few
rational, understandable and laudable actions, and leaves her husband. By the
way, Jewel Staite is quite good in this supporting role as Margaret, Jeremiah’s
wife. Of course, it is Angela who arranges for someone to take Margaret to a
safe place, which further raises the ire of the unstable preacher. Though
Margaret has taken only one suitcase, Jeremiah says, “Everything in the
house is gone, her clothes are gone.” That is one magic suitcase. Or
perhaps they didn’t own very much. Either way, rather than taking
responsibility for his own actions, the religious freak blames Angela for his
wife’s absence, and Jeremiah begins threatening her, demanding to know where
his wife is.
Even though her boyfriend is in law enforcement, Angela
does not call the police. She does not call a lawyer to get a restraining
order. She does nothing. She doesn’t even want Mac to put any pressure on the
religious nuts. And that’s hard for me to swallow. Angela would have had some
training, in which she would have learned to take all threats seriously, to document
them, and to let the law protect her. And even after a murder occurs, one with
an eye witness, the sheriff makes no arrests. I don’t buy that either. Even if
he’s somehow sympathetic to the religious cause, even if he’s nervous about the
power of the religious right, as soon as there is a murder, I think his
professional side would take over because he has an important job to perform.
But he too does nothing. And that is what is so frustrating about this film.
I don’t believe that he wouldn’t perform his duty, or at least defer to
others to do it, calling the state police or something if he didn’t want to
start the investigation himself.
Rebecca, one of the religious weirdos, hears a voice that
tells her that they should burn Angela. And who is there to stop them? There
are some good performances here, particularly by Sarah Smyth as Angela, but
this film left me in a foul mood. Perhaps that’s the point.
She Who Must Burn was directed by Larry Kent, and
is now available on Video On Demand.
No comments:
Post a Comment