[THE CLUB screens
Thursday April 7th at 9:10 pm and Friday April 8th at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland
Cinematheque.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
Membership in director Pablo Larrain’s THE CLUB is exclusive, but not especially desirable. The members
are all former Catholic priests: Father Vidal (Alfredo Castro is probably a
pedophile (he admits to the urges, but claims he keeps them under control), Father
Ortega (Alejandro Goic) kidnapped “unwanted” babies and gave them to homes he
deemed better, army Chaplain Father Silva (Jaime Vadell) was complicit in war
crimes of some kind, and Father Ramirez (Alejandro Sieveking) is too senile to
remember what he did, and whatever records might have existed on the man are
missing. These men have been sentenced by the church to live out their days in
an austere house on the Chilean seaside, watched over by a former nun (Antonia
Zegers, wife of the director) with a checkered past of her own.
While their lives are hardly ideal, things could be worse.
Some of the rules they have to follow are strict, but at least they have a
winning pet greyhound who they hope to get into some sort of national
championship, and their lives are more or less quiet and uneventful. That all
changes when a new member joins the club, pedophile Father Lazcano (Jose Soza).
Shortly after the defrocked predator moves in, one of his
victims, Sandokan (Roberto Farias), shows up at the house and loudly tells
anyone within earshot what was done to him. Unable to take the confrontation,
Father Lazcano shoots himself in the head.
The suicide results in the Vatican sending Father Garcia
(Marcelo Alonso), who views himself as a representative of the “new” Church, to
assess the situation. Garcia is frustrated by his inability to get the whole
story of what happened. Nor is he happy that these men who he views as
criminals are, in his mind, treating their exile more like a vacation than punishment.
As Garcia’s investigation continues, things eventually come to a head.
While it’s fairly certain Larrain has no love for the
Catholic Church as an institution, he doesn’t portray any of his characters as
outright evil. They don’t come across as particularly sympathetic, either, but
they all at least manage to retain some humanity. Father Garcia manages to
simultaneously strike the figure of both crusading reformer and uptight bureaucrat,
but despite his talk of a “new” church, when it comes time to circle the wagons
he doesn’t hesitate to take extreme measures to insure the old establishment
comes to no further shame.
So yeah, this one probably wouldn’t get the Legion of
Decency seal of approval. And yes, I know technically that’s not still “a thing”,
but it has a better ring to it than the group’s successor, the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting.
THE CLUB also has
some genuinely uncomfortable moments, particularly Sandokan’s graphic
recounting of what was done to him, and some scenes of animal cruelty that are
hard to watch. For those who can handle it, though, it’s a powerful film that
packs far more of an emotional punch than this year’s solid, if by the numbers,
“Best Picture” Oscar winner SPOTLIGHT,
which dealt with some similar themes. 3 ½ out of 4 stars.
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