Words by JANE CROWTHER
Written by Luc Besson, and produced and fronted by Kiefer Sutherland, Father Joe is exactly the sort of nostalgic ’90s throwback you might expect it to be. It wears its daft heart on its vestment sleeve and makes no apology for being the kind of movie you might have picked up from Blockbuster in yester years. A quasi-Western via mobster movie tropes, it follows the titular Catholic priest (Sutherland) as he attempts to clean up his ’90s Manhattan neighbourhood of drug dealers and organ thieves via murder, violence and a series of one-liners. Plus, it features Al Pacino dressed in furs and sashaying through mass as a Godfather-esque score swells.
If you’re still with us after that first paragraph, the catalyst for Joe’s vigilantism goes back to his experiences as a special forces soldier and the death of his family as a consequence of illegal drugs flooding NY. Now he runs a church that is an orphanage/soup kitchen/arms den, where his faithful second-in-command is an ace with nunchucks, his orphan choirboys can service a semi automatic and Joe ventures out on an evening armed to the gills and rocking a wide-brim hat, leather waistcoat, billowing trench and massive crucifix (which doubles as a dagger). He calls victims ‘my son’ and quotes the Bible as he destroys drugs labs, maims and murders, injects goons with poison and rescues overdosed teens. His mission is to stop dealers selling to anyone under the age of 21 (‘you can’t save everyone’) and he must be ok cos the local Jewish and Muslim leaders are down with a bit of gunplay too.
Things come to a bullet-spraying head when mobster Giu Falcone (Pacino) puts down his latest book (100 Years Of Solitude, which he gives a review of to his sunglasses-wearing henchmen) and decides to stop the holy father from wreaking any more havoc. Bazookas are used on pulpits, there’s slow-mo walks from explosions and a teenage drug user (played by Milla Jovovich’s daughter, Ever Anderson) becomes a surrogate daughter to emotionally wounded Joe…
But all of this is played with such earnestness and lack of snark that the result is something nostalgically comforting. Ignore the moral seesawing and accept the creed, and Father Joe is a bombastic popcorn movie that promises tasty elevator and toy shop dust-ups, Sutherland looking undeniably cool and the possibility of a sequel teased with a nod to Pacino’s most famous movie. Go in peace – and you may have a silly time at the movies.
Words by JANE CROWTHER
Images courtesy of EUROPACORP
Father Joe premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival
