There were very few categories of people Hollywood had expressed (and still expresses) enmity towards as strongly as in the case of evangelical preachers. The source of bad blood wasn’t just in ideological differences – with liberal left-leaning film makers completely opposed to preachers’ right-wing conservatism – but also because preachers, especially near the end of 20th Century, adopted and even perfected some of Hollywood’s show business techniques, some of them creating empires as strong as Hollywood studios. There were many expressions of such enmity in various Hollywood films, which included Leap of Faith, 1992 drama directed by Richard Pearce, a film that nevertheless kept surprisingly even-handed and restrained approach towards the subject.
Main character, played by Steve Martin, is Jonas Nightingale, preacher and faith healer who travels the country and holds faith revival meetings where extracts large sums of money from the faithful. One day a truck in his convoy breaks down in small Kansas town of Rustwater and Nightingale is forced to wait few days for repairs. He decides to use it as an opportunity, so he sets up tent and holds revival meetings, correctly assuming that the local community, which had fallen on hard times because of drought, would flock to him in desperate search of miracle. One of the local that doesn’t show much enthusiasm is Will Braverman (played by Liam Neeson), sheriff who sees Nightingale as con man who exploits vulnerable people with combination of high tech gadgetry and clever psychological tricks. Nightingale tries to solve that problem by sending his manager Jane Larson (played by Debra Winger) to seduce the sheriff, but she falls in love with him. In the meantime, Nightingale gets attracted to local waitress Marva (played by Lolita Davidovich), who is sceptical towards the preacher. Her crippled brother Boyd (played by Lukas Haas), on the other hand, believes that Nightingale might cure him and help him walk again, which puts Nightingale in rather unpleasant situation.
Steve Martin, actor who had built his reputation on comedies, tried to broaden his range with a serious dramatic role, so anyone expecting Leap of Faith to be a comedy is going to be disappointed. Script by Janus Cercone takes very realistic approach to faith healing business and the most interesting parts are those that depict behind-the-scenes work of many assistants who help faith healers appear possessed with divine inspiration. This includes use of modern technology like computer databases, careful intelligence work and deep psychological evaluation that can convince potential targets that faith healer has information about them he could not possibly have. Despite seriousness, tone of the film is generally light, mostly due to use of uplifting gospel music performed by band that accompanies Nightingale. Steve Martin, who had played another con man in much better film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels few years earlier, is very good in his role and helps audience glued to the screen despite the character being portrayed as pathetic con man who, when pressed, admits that the best he can provide is cheap entertainment. Liam Neeson and Lukas Haas are also good in their roles. Unfortunately, Lolita Davidovich and Debra Winger are wasted in undeveloped characters and unconvincing romantic subplots and Leap of Faith could have been much better without them. Probably the most problematic – and almost certainly for those who have strong convictions in the issues of religion – is the ending when the main character gets predictable epiphany after encountering genuine miracle. Pearce, who has worked mostly on television, directs the film well and maintains relatively good pace, so, thanks to good music and Martin’s good performance, most of the viewers would ultimately enjoy this film.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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