***SPOILER ALERT*** In the film "Mortal Sins" we not only have a top-rate murder mystery thriller but also get to see the late Christopher Reeves, playing Father Thomas Cusack, with a beaut of a shiner,that he got in breaking up a fight in the Church's mens-room,throughout almost the entire movie. New at his job as the priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church Father Thomas hit it off big with the younger set with his both openness and sincerity in dealing with their pressing problems in growing up as Catholics in a more or less anything goes society.
During confession Father Thomas was hit with a very disturbing admission from one of his parishioners in that he committed a murdered and wants to be forgiven for it! Not at first taking the "murder confession" seriously Father Thomas is shocked to find out the next day in the local newspaper that the person whom the unidentified confessor said he murdered was not the mindless boasting of a sick and disturbed person-crying out for help-but the real thing! Things get even more shocking- for Father Thomas- when it's reported that the murder victim was giving the last rites, in a very elaborate Catholic ceremony, by the deranged killer just before he stabbed her to death!
Convinced that the killer is either an ex-Catholic Priest or someone very knowledgeable with Catholic Chuch tradition Father Thomas goes out on his own to prevent him from committing more killings. This soon causes Father Thomas to get himself involved with a another ritual-style murder in trying to prevent the unknown killer from murdering his next victim! A person that the killer confessed to murdering-before she was found-to Father Thomas during another confession session at his church!
Doing his own investigating Father Thomas soon comes up with a suspect in this rash of some half dozen murders in the name of the church but is prevented by the sacrament of the church confession booth to tell the police who he is. This has the killer have a free hand in his insane attempt to cleanse the world or better yet his future victims of the "evil" that's lurking inside of them! Walking a tight rope between church religious tradition and common law Father Thomas is now forced to use himself as bait in drawing the killer out as well as, by Father Thomas being a suspect in his murders, having the police shadow him in the hopes they'll catch the killer before he gets to Father Thomas!
Very much like the 1953 Alfred Hitchcock murder-suspense classic "I Confess" the film "Mortal Sins" brings out the moral dilemma of how a Catholic Priest is handcuffed in not being able to reveal to the police a murderer who confesses his crime to him. Where the movie goes even a step farther, then in "I Confess", is that in it the killer doesn't only confess his past crimes but his future ones as well! This all drives Father Thomas almost over the edge in trying to stop them without giving away to the police just who, whom Father Thomas had since found out, the killer really is! In him hoping that the police are able to find that out all by themselves even if it leads to Father Thomas becoming the killer's next murder victim!
During confession Father Thomas was hit with a very disturbing admission from one of his parishioners in that he committed a murdered and wants to be forgiven for it! Not at first taking the "murder confession" seriously Father Thomas is shocked to find out the next day in the local newspaper that the person whom the unidentified confessor said he murdered was not the mindless boasting of a sick and disturbed person-crying out for help-but the real thing! Things get even more shocking- for Father Thomas- when it's reported that the murder victim was giving the last rites, in a very elaborate Catholic ceremony, by the deranged killer just before he stabbed her to death!
Convinced that the killer is either an ex-Catholic Priest or someone very knowledgeable with Catholic Chuch tradition Father Thomas goes out on his own to prevent him from committing more killings. This soon causes Father Thomas to get himself involved with a another ritual-style murder in trying to prevent the unknown killer from murdering his next victim! A person that the killer confessed to murdering-before she was found-to Father Thomas during another confession session at his church!
Doing his own investigating Father Thomas soon comes up with a suspect in this rash of some half dozen murders in the name of the church but is prevented by the sacrament of the church confession booth to tell the police who he is. This has the killer have a free hand in his insane attempt to cleanse the world or better yet his future victims of the "evil" that's lurking inside of them! Walking a tight rope between church religious tradition and common law Father Thomas is now forced to use himself as bait in drawing the killer out as well as, by Father Thomas being a suspect in his murders, having the police shadow him in the hopes they'll catch the killer before he gets to Father Thomas!
Very much like the 1953 Alfred Hitchcock murder-suspense classic "I Confess" the film "Mortal Sins" brings out the moral dilemma of how a Catholic Priest is handcuffed in not being able to reveal to the police a murderer who confesses his crime to him. Where the movie goes even a step farther, then in "I Confess", is that in it the killer doesn't only confess his past crimes but his future ones as well! This all drives Father Thomas almost over the edge in trying to stop them without giving away to the police just who, whom Father Thomas had since found out, the killer really is! In him hoping that the police are able to find that out all by themselves even if it leads to Father Thomas becoming the killer's next murder victim!