A Twist of Faith (1999)

Just so...so bad

Brilliant and touching

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

A cop dealing with his own mistake resulting in a partner's death and loss of faith is on the trail of a serial killer who has some obsession with the Catholic church. Many of the standard themes are there - cop has trouble with supervisor, his own family has trouble, early leads are blind alleys, a special relationship develops between the crook and the cop who hunts him, etc.There are a few departures from formula as if the film seems to know what we're expecting and chooses to give us that or surprise us with a twist we weren't necessarily expecting. In general, this is certainly not a great movie but entertaining enough to see it through.

it was 2 am and this came on cinemax and as i am ridiculously intrigued by serial-kiler movies i had to watch this, saying i'd turn it off after a few minutes. well, that didnt happen. the thing that made me want to watch this wasn't to find out who the killer was, after a while i lost interest in that, but WHY they were doing it. the whole religious aspect was creepy from the beginning b/c an exceptionally nice priest is killed and a tape is left behind with the killer screaming in Latin, "if you're you so powerful why don't you stop me?". it sets this really creepy tone for the killer and you want to know what this guy's religious hang-ups are. the suspense of that is quite well done. as far as acting goes, i was pleasantly surprised by some of it. i think mc carthy can be quite good with the right material and even though this is straight to video fare, he's actually worth watching. of course, some of the dialogue really needs to go and a subplot involving the captain's dead son and mc carthy's guilt really was unncessary, but his persona as a detective worked well. you wont even remember that this was the skinny guy who played Blaine (a household appliance of a name, according to Ducky) in Pretty in Pink. mc carthy's interactions with his partner leave you with some memorable lines and their time together makes the film amusing. however, michael ironside is so wooden in his role that it drags the thing on slowly. at times he's ok, but not when its necessary to show true emotion. his scenes in the finale are painful to watch for the wrong reasons. mc carthy's wife wasnt played with much force, and either were some of the supporting characters with the exception of the woman with "perfect faith" who works for the church. at first mc carthy's atheist character seemed to have this point simply for the plot but at the end, i feel that the change in his beliefs will feel deserved by the audience. overall- the scenes of the city at night will seem like they are taken out of a movie from 1983 rather than 1999 and were a bit cheesy. the set could have needed a bit more lighting (this film can not try to be on par with the deservedly gloomy Seven). the "why" behind the killer's actions was ok, definitely a little creepy but yet i really got annoyed by the old woman mc carthy talks to who gives the audience this information. who the hell was she? and why did she have such a ridiculously overdone accent?i think that the movie is worthwhile if you want to see mc carthy in a role he isnt' typically known for and if you want a creepy movie that isnt TOO creepy a la Seven. i didnt see the video box like the above viewer did but i still want to hear what anyone else thought about this film. its obviously B movie stuff but if a more enlivened actor would have played the killer i think it could have been good. mc carthy gave his character his best shot, i think.

A homicide investigator (McCarthy) finds himself caught between his young daughter's life/death struggle with disease and a serial killer's rampage in this nominally watchable whodunnit drama. An good shoot but one of those flicks which you feel like you seen many times before. Okay material for channel surfers.

Patrick Dempsey has proven himself to be a good actor in adult roles. I only hope his he gets better vehicles than this one. He portrays a police detective on the hunt for a serial killer. Oh when have we seen this before- a few too many times for me. Apparently the video box gives away the ending, BUT I knew who the killer was the first time he appeared. Micheal Ironside play a super rich, newspaper publisher. Need I say more.I can only recommend this film as part of a double feature. I can only give this a **1/2 ratingas alwaysJay Harris