Anyone see "Mass Appeal"?

[caroljm36]

I ran across this movie on TV about 10 years ago. A real sleeper–never heard of it before or after. I think it was an HBO production. It starred Jack Lemmon as a very popular priest in a posh parish (I think they used the church in Beverly Hills) who has a drinking problem, and a new young priest comes to the parish…then it all gets very dim. At one point the new guy stands up in the pews and reads Lemmon the riot act…I was a neophyte and didn’t really know the point of the movie or get the drift of its theology (or politics).

Did anyone else see this? Maybe I’d get more out of it now.

 

[HagiaSophia]

caroljm36:

I ran across this movie on TV about 10 years ago. A real sleeper–never heard of it before or after. I think it was an HBO production. It starred Jack Lemmon as a very popular priest in a posh parish (I think they used the church in Beverly Hills) who has a drinking problem, and a new young priest comes to the parish…then it all gets very dim. At one point the new guy stands up in the pews and reads Lemmon the riot act…I was a neophyte and didn’t really know the point of the movie or get the drift of its theology (or politics).

Did anyone else see this? Maybe I’d get more out of it now.

It was comedic and serious both look at parish life in many ways.
However, it was quite popular when it first came out - another beauty is “Saving Grace” with Tom Conte about the pope who gets locked out of the Vatican and meets people in the “real world” - a gem.

And if you’re looking to rent a truly fine movie, one which was very popular in its day and no one ever mentions anymore, get Keys of the Kingdom with Gregory Peck. He brought the lead character Fr. Chisholm to life in a most extraordinary way,

 

[puzzleannie]

It is Jack Lemmon at his best, playing himself, and gives an accurate picture of the state of the average American parish, and is a textbook example of what has been wrong about seminary training and formation in the last 30 years. If I were putting together a course on the origins of the current crisis, I would include this as background info.