Date: Fri 20-Feb-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Apostle-Playing-Duvall-Fawcett

Full Text:

(rev Robert Duvall's "The Apostle" for Now Playing)

Now Playing: Duvall's Pet Project Deserves The Rewards It Is Receiving

By Trey Paul Alexander III

About midway through The Apostle , Robert Duvall's pet project (he served as

writer, director, star and financier) about a Southern Pentecostal preacher,

the lively orator shares a quiet moment during a date with a shy secretary

(Miranda Richardson) who has caught his eye and begins with interest to

explore her family background. When she reveals that she grew up listening to

"I Love to Tell the Story" as a bedtime lullaby, his eyes start to sparkle and

he breaks into a rendition of the venerable spiritual chorus.

Indeed, Duvall loved to tell this story, the evidence being his impassioned,

throw-caution-to-the-wind portrayal of "E.F.," the apostle of the film's

title, and his reward a recently announced Academy Award nomination and an

opportunity to garner the second Best Actor Oscar of his career. He invests of

himself here implicitly, and the unwavering focus of his gaze on this

individual and the charismatic faith makes for a lingering tale that will not

be for all tastes, as it isn't exactly your typically digestible multiplex

offering.

The Apostle , currently at Bethel Cinema, chronicles the journey of Texas

pentecostalist Sonny Dewey (Duvall), a magnetic self-proclaimed evangelist,

into the rechristened preacher and leader of a Louisiana bayou church, E.F.

The reason for the change? Sonny's crumbling marriage, which is breaking apart

due to the infidelity of both partners, and the subsequently successful

attempt by his wife (Farrah Fawcett) to seize control of his Texas temple.

When one of Sonny's later fits of rage leads to an unmeditated yet violent

crime, he goes on the lam, decides to change his identity and follows the path

on which he believes God to be leading him.

Years ago, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Oral Roberts, et al,

gave televangelists a bad but storied name. Their brushes with hypocrisy did

much to soil not only their own reputations, but that of the religious

community at large, as many skeptics were quick to paint other professing

Christians with the same brush and broad strokes as those who had taken their

highly public falls. Such cynicism is not new, of course, and it is generally

typical of Hollywood portrayals of the professing Christian church.

In fact, many of the early scenes in The Apostle are difficult to gauge

because of what is perceived to be the usual approach to religion. You find

yourself waiting to discover Sonny's real motivation or uncover the hidden

agenda behind his effervescent desire for evangelism. But Duvall's

Bible-thumping, quick-quipping, giddy-footed preacher isn't a put-on, nor are

the numerously staged sequences in which charismatic Christians sit (though

sitting is hardly the right word) entranced by the speaker and join in endless

praise choruses and chants of "Hallelujah!"

Yet Duvall's willingness to take E.F. and his followers seriously is also what

leaves the film frustratingly short of satisfying. Duvall refuses to cast a

cynical eye toward the animated religion of these southerners, but he also

balks at casting a critical gaze at the often hypocritical actions of his

Pentecostal preacher. Sure we get many scenes which convey the struggle within

Sonny as he refuses to face his past and own up to his actions, but ultimately

there is little sense of the true repentance of which Sonny often preaches.

His journey is determinedly more Catholic in that his labors as E.F. are made

to seem like penance, retribution, and finally the redemption for his past

sins in Texas.

The Apostle is rated PG-13 for some occasional profanity and sexual

suggestiveness, and though not used as a profanity, the name "Jesus" is

uttered more often than some people hear it in a lifetime.