Review: Absolution

Richard Burton is Father Goddard, a humourless but reasonably decent teacher of Latin at a Catholic boarding school for boys, who gets on the wrong side of one of his students named Benjie (Dominic Guard). Although Father Goddard is quite fond of the student, Benjie has recently been heading off into the nearby woods to meet up with a laidback vagabond named Blakey (Billy Connolly), against Father Goddard’s wishes. Perhaps for a bit of a lark, Blakey suggests Benjie get back at Father Goddard by confessing a (fake) criminal activity to torture the religious man with the details, knowing that the seal of confessional prevents Father Goddard from doing a damn thing about it. And later he comes to confess another, even greater sinful act, horrifying Father Goddard even more. David Bradley plays nerdy, disabled student Arthur who tries to befriend the delinquent Benjie, whilst often earning the disapproval of Father Goddard. Brian Glover turns up briefly as a brutal copper who tries to move Blakey along. A rather thin-looking Andrew Keir turns up as the Headmaster of the school.

Filmed in 1978, only released in 1981 (and in some countries much later than that), this compelling and twisty film directed by Anthony Page (who has directed completely unnecessary remakes of Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes” and the excellent “Johnny Belinda”) is every bit indicative of screenwriter Anthony Shaffer (“The Wicker Man”, “Sleuth”, Hitchcock’s “Frenzy”). It’s a shame it was given such a shoddy treatment in terms of release, because it deserves to find a much larger audience than it has then and now.

When you see that it’s set in a Catholic boarding school and that the very dour Richard Burton is an authority figure there, you start to get an anxious feeling, as Mr. Burton isn’t always the most reassuring presence on screen. However, his character quickly establishes himself as harsh and humourless but relatively well-intentioned (He does play favourites, though). You’ve seen far more rigid and nasty religious authority figures, so you figure he’s decent company to be in for 90 minutes. One of cinema’s finest-ever voices, when it was his wont, Burton could also be one of the finest-ever actors who sold dour seriousness and gravity like no other. Well-cast as Father Goddard, Burton’s terrific here as a dour authoritarian who is about to be put through the wringer over the course of the film. Also impressive is a debuting Billy Connolly as a motorbike-riding, banjo-playing (naturally) hippie vagabond named Blakey, who befriends one of the boys, much to Father Goddard’s dislike. Connolly will never go down as one of the greats of the acting profession like I believe Burton to be, but he’s certainly more than just a stand-up comedian and banjo-enthusiast and can act on either side of the comedy/drama divide. Here he steals scenes by sheer force of personality.

However, it might just be young Dominic Guard and David Bradley who make you sit up and take notice here. Playing the nerdy, motor-mouthed, clingy physically disabled Arthur, David Bradley is deliberately and effectively irritating. He’ll make you rather squirmy and a bit uncomfortable, and the other characters tend to find that a little bit of Arthur goes a heck of a long way too. It only takes about 15 minutes for Burton’s Father Goddard to finally tire of Arthur’s incessant yammering. Dominic Guard is an immediate worry as the brooding delinquent Benjie who gets on Father Goddard’s nerves far more antagonistically and deliberately (Despite starting out as being favoured by Father Goddard). Bradley may give the better performance of the two, but Guard’s Benjie is the more interesting character for much of the film. He’s a prankster and utterly remorseless trouble-maker, but may just have taken it too far this time. Meanwhile, Arthur’s incessant chatter and clinginess is starting to wear thin on Benjie, making you fear for the former’s safety. Underrated character actor Andrew Keir is here too, but as the Headmaster he’s given absolutely nothing to do, which is a shame as he is usually a lively presence on screen.

It’s a very clever screenplay, where even if like me you kinda know what’s going on, you might still not know exactly what’s going on because there will be another twist or turn you didn’t quite predict. Suffice to say that there’s some very twisted games being played here and I didn’t guess everything correctly. It’s quite a shocking conclusion, actually. I should’ve guessed it but well done Mr. Shaffer, I wasn’t quite on the money this time. I’m not entirely certain that things would escalate as quickly as they appear to in the story here, but that’s a minor complaint. Much better than the similarly themed 1972 film “Child’s Play”, it’s also adorned with very nice, dark cinematography by John Coquillon (“Straw Dogs”, the underrated haunted house pic “The Changeling”).

A mixture of “I Confess” and “The Wicker Man” this shamefully unheard of, utterly compelling psychological mystery/thriller is worth seeking out if you can manage to get your eyes on it. Well-acted and with a story that twists and turns throughout, more disturbing as it goes along.

Rating: B