Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Bartosz Bielenia, Aleksandra Konieczna, Eliza Rycembel
Intro:
...grows inexorably in intensity, becoming more naturalistic and then utterly gripping.
This tale would seem rather implausible, were it not based on truth. Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia), a young convict with a rather wild past, is released from ‘juvie’. He wants to enrol in a seminary, but his criminal record precludes that, and he’s supposed to head straight to the living death of a job in a sawmill. Instead, he sticks with the religious idea by passing himself off as a village priest, and proceeds to fill in while a real one is away.
For a short time, this saga has a curiously static quality which renders it intriguing, but also limits our level of involvement. However, it grows inexorably in intensity, becoming more naturalistic and then utterly gripping. Occasionally, it’s drily funny, but the predominant feeling is very heavy indeed. The plot thickens as we eventually find out what Daniel was in juvie for and why he was particularly bent on getting out as soon as possible. Then, there is the story of a multiple-fatality accident which ripped his adopted village apart the year before his arrival, and the residual fury on the part of the locals …
Corpus Christi is essentially about guilt and – a chronically over-used word about cinema, but integral here – redemption. It’s also about desperation, and there’s hardly a character who isn’t deeply damaged. The excellent harmonium-driven instrumental score – reminiscent of Nico at her ‘doomiest’ – enhances the sense of angst, and so does the subdued lighting. Bartosz Bielenia’s performance is stellar, and this is recommended viewing.
