Review

  • Aptly titled, this American documentary details how the Catholic Church turned a blind eye to one of its priests molesting children, instead opting to move him from parish to parish, only for him to re-offend. While the subject matter is grim, the film admirably never once comes across as angry and it is a refreshingly unbiased affair given the controversial topic. As director Amy Berg includes both involves with the priest in question, his victims and their families, it is left up to the individual viewer to judge whether or not he feels remorse. As the priest in question, Father Oliver O'Grady makes for a fascinating (if deplorable) interviewee, lamenting the fact that he felt a "need to reach out to someone" and agreeing that his actions were wrong; "my life has been a failure" he candidly admits. Berg leaves the most heartbreaking moments for the victim's families though with one distraught father regretting that he told his daughter that he would kill anyone whoever hurt her - something she took literally and therefore as a child decided never to speak up. The documentary loses some focus towards the end, going off on a tangent about celibacy leading to child abuse (an unlikely connection that has been hypothesised but never yet proved); the film could have also benefited from O'Grady having more screen time. This is, however, chiefly a film about his victims and their families rather than O'Grady himself, and considering this, the film leaves an indelible impact, and remarkably so given the restraint Berg shows towards getting angry about what happened.