Roger Ebert is a Catholic
And sometimes, it shows, such as in his two new reviews posted today, one of The Woodsman, the other of Virgin. Here are two ‘graphs from the latter to show you what I mean.
“Fundamentalists almost always appear in American movies for the purpose of being closed-minded, rigid and sanctimonious. Anyone with any religion at all, for that matter, tends to be suspect (the priest in “Million Dollar Baby” is the first good priest I can remember in a film in a long time). Movies can’t seem to deal with faith as a positive element in an admirable life, and the only religions taken seriously by Hollywood are the kinds promoted in stores that also sell incense and tarot decks. So it’s refreshing to see the Robin Wright Penn character allowed to unbend in “Virgin,” to become less rigid and more of an empathetic mother, who intuitively senses that although Jessie may be deluded, she is sincere.”
“…in mainstream society, there are only two positions on such matters: Either you believe, or you do not (and therefore either you are saved, or you don’t care). Is it not possible that faith is its own reward, apart from any need for it to be connected with reality? I am unreasonably stimulated by works that leave me theologically stranded like that. They’re much more interesting than works that, one way or the other, think they know.”
