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'Deliver' Makes a Powerful Case By Robert Denerstein Rocky Mountain News October 27, 2006 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/movies/article/0,2792,DRMN_23_5096103,00.html Oliver O'Grady wears gray sweaters and seldom seems to raise his voice. Aside from the lilt of his Irish accent, he might as well be a Mr. Rogers stand-in, a kindly-looking soul with an apparently gentle demeanor. But O'Grady, a former priest we meet in the shattering new documentary Deliver Us From Evil, could hardly be less benign. A pedophile priest, O'Grady betrayed the trust his parishioners placed in him and preyed on their young. Perhaps it was narcissism that drove O'Grady - now living in Ireland after 20 years in the priesthood and seven in prison - to appear in director Amy Berg's film. Berg, who had covered sexual abuse within the church for CNN and CBS, makes this bit of cinematic dynamite the centerpiece of a heartbreaking film. O'Grady's apparently unrepentant attitude seems especially bizarre in light of his transgressions, which include mind-boggling attempts at sex with a 9-month-old infant. When he talks about what arouses him sexually (little kids in bathing suits, for example), he seems oblivious to how others might view such proclivities. If the film were solely about O'Grady, it would be little more than an exploitative freak show. It's not. Berg broadens the movie by introducing us to a variety of people who were abused by O'Grady when they were children. She also presents a persuasive case against the Catholic church in Los Angeles for refusing to effectively deal with O'Grady's case and alerts us to the fact that priestly pedophilia doesn't always mean sexual activity with boys. O'Grady is sick, perhaps even beyond help. But the film also indicts Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was O'Grady's bishop during the abuse years, for sweeping the case under the rug so that he could fulfill his own ambitions. Mahony, the film argues, didn't want bad publicity to spoil his chances at making cardinal. In giving depositions during legal proceedings, Mahony is anything but convincing. When O'Grady's behavior became known, the priest was shuffled off to other Southern California parishes where he could begin anew. His idea of renewal evidently involved discovering fresh victims. Deliver Us From Evil deals with emotionally charged material, so it should surprise no one that it includes one of the most wrenching moments ever captured on film. Bob Jyono experienced an especially keen sense of betrayal when he learned that O'Grady had molested his daughter. Jyono and his wife, Maria, had treated O'Grady like a trusted and even honored member of their household. Loyal Catholics, they invited the priest to sleep over so he could get a break from the pressures of clerical duty. When O'Grady talks about how he was duped and the brutality his daughter endured, his pain is so palpable you almost need to look away from the screen. Now Jyono's daughter, Ann, wants the church to help her to heal, but she's stonewalled during an attempt to visit the Vatican with other victims. It may have been a bit of a contrivance to take the film to Rome, and I don't know enough about Catholic doctrine to determine whether it's accurately represented by Father Tom Doyle, an outspoken advocate for victims of clerical abuse. But a few possible missteps don't detract from the film's most powerful material. As shocking as O'Grady's crimes were, his lack of self-awareness seems almost as astonishing. At one point, he even suggests that he might meet with some of the children he abused, a reunion he hoped might end with handshakes all around. It's frightening to see how such an obviously disturbed man could have wrought so much havoc and equally unsettling to realize that much of it could have been avoided. Church officials wouldn't talk to Berg, but it's difficult to imagine what could be said in defense of those who minimized what was happening. It's unfortunate if people read the film as an indictment of the entire church, but Deliver Us From Evil certainly makes a compelling case that leaders who were directly involved in this sordid, unholy mess didn't respond with a real sense of urgency or perhaps even with the kind of bedrock decency we'd like to believe is an integral part of being a priest.
What the studios didn't want us to write about The following film wasn't screened in time to review: Saw III • The stars: Angus MacFadyen, Shawnee Smith, Tobin Bell • The premise: Predictably, Jigsaw has eluded capture again, and he's up to his same gory games and insidious means of torture. • What could be so bad: Does anyone not know this formula now? Blood + guts + torture = another Saw movie. |
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