Confession

An intriguing setup -- a man with a gunshot wound enters a church just before it closes, while another injured person is already hiding inside it -- is never made the most of in this patchy thriller. Confession boasts a small but talented cast. Colm Meaney gives a solid performance as Father Peter, an even-tempered priest caught up in the confusion, while Stephen Moyer has enough screen presence to contrast Victor's quiet brooding with his occasional eruptions of violence, anger, and regret.

Where the movie stumbles is that it never manages enough invention in its single setting. The church feels like a convenient rather than a necessary place for this drama to unfold. It's left to lengthy speeches about characters' respective back stories for us to find out who they are, what's going on, and what they want, with the latter never truly convincing. Father Peter in particular is under-utilized, existing mainly to soak up information and ask questions for the audience's benefit. Creating an original story from such a small cast and single setting was always going to be difficult. But the late introduction of some new information and more minor characters ends the movie on a limp twist, rather than the bang that was intended. Think Reservoir Dogs without the bite.